Turning the Helical Gear
by Nickeltaffy
Summary: Everyone surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike.  The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback along the way.
1. Chapter 1

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun.

…..

Chapter 1

The doors burst open. Angel walked into the room with a small struggling figure under his arm. His mouth was tense as he readjusted the figure who was doing their best at wiggling free. Turning the small body, so the kicking legs were flailing uselessly in the air, he walked directly into the room with a purpose. He strode directly over to the bed,as his body language stated that this subject was not up for discussion.

"I DONN WANNA TAKE A NAP!" declared the struggling small blonde.

Angel set the small figure on the bed in Angel's bedroom. He stood back with his hands on hips staring down at the new smaller version of Spike. The look in Angel's eyes sent the message that he would not be denied in this matter.

Finding himself sitting on the bed, Spike slowly looked up at the giant standing over him. He opened his mouth to voice his objection to be treated thusly. As his eyes met Angel's, he suddenly felt small and vulnerable. He shut his mouth and looked away. With a huff, Spike crossed his small arms across his chest, in a gesture that small children use to comfort themselves. His lower lip stuck out in defiance and stubbornness.

"No…no….*gulp" muttered Spike, not daring to look up but not wanting to let Angel know he was intimidated.

He was sitting a little over a foot away from the edge of the bed, but his feet were sticking straight out over the edge. His legs were not long enough to even bend toward the floor. This was very different from how the day had started.

….

It was a typical morning at Angel Investigations. Everyone gravitated toward the main conference room. The morning meeting was held to discuss the status of current and upcoming cases. Angel was already in the conference room slowly cursing Spike's name under his breath as he was looking over the report from last week's case regarding a Sarkadi demon that had taken up residence in a local candle factory. It was a particularly nasty sort that liked to slowly crush it victims before consuming them entirely in one swallow. Angel had sent Gunn, Wesley and Spike to take care of it.

"What is this note regarding a room filled with wax?" Angel asked Gunn as he came into the room.

Gunn explained that the Sarkadi demon had a tough outer shell. Spike and Gunn had discovered that the body blows they were raining down upon the demon nor their weapons were having very little effect. Spike and Gunn retreated while Wes pulled out heavier artillery. Even Wes' battery of explosives were not deterring the demon from progressing toward the men. That's when Spike vaulted up the wall, wedging himself between the wall and the vat of hot wax used for making candles. Pushing with his legs, the vat began to tilt toward the demon pouring hot wax over its' body and spreading across the room. The wax had softened the armor, so Wes' next grenade finished the job. Leave it to say, the factory owner was less than pleased to discover his entire holiday inventory had been destroyed in the demon's destruction. The report included a letter of complaint that the factory would have to cut a quarter of their workstaff since they could not support the holiday orders due to lack of inventory. The letter threatened a nasty letter would be sent to the BBB.

"Wasn't there another way that this demon could have been taken care that would have been less… appocolyptic? Leave it to Spike to make a huge mess." Angel asked

"He swung the battle our way. Man, I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't done what he did." Said Gunn as he shrugged his shoulders.

Angel grumbled something indecipherable about Spike. Trouble was second nature to Spike. He was always creating trouble..even when it was unintentional. Angel didn't know what he could do, but somehow Spike was going to have to show some respect for authority.

Spike was out in the lobby, stopping by Harmony's desk to look at the morning mail. Wes was just entering the conference room. Spike put down the mail and was walking toward the room when Fred came bubbling across the lobby. She brightly said good morning, as Spike held conference room door open. She was holding an object tightly wrapped in cloth close to her chest, clutching it to her in her excitement, as an high pitched hum came from her.

As everyone took their seats, Angel picked up the report and dropped it down in front of Spike. Spike looked up puzzled. Leaning over Spike, Angel addressed the group that no unsanctioned actions that destroyed property would be allowed such as what happened at the candle factory. Angel set down his cup of blood on the table and stood back

"After all, they were supposed to help the helpless, not put them in the poorhouse" expounded Angel as he sauntered around to the other side of the table.

Hey, whot are you talking about. Were we supposed to be midnight snack for the beastie? I did what was needed to be done to kill the bugger. I would like to see you do any better. " blurted Spike

"Spike, As part of the AI team, you are expected to follow my directions in these matters." Angel stated firmly as he leaned across the table.

"I will as soon as you start making sense. Poof." Said Spike standing up from his chair.

"Spike…"

"Hey guys, let it go. There's no way that 100 years of this can be resolved in this meeting" said Gunn as he stood up to put himself between the two men.

"Really, I think Fred has something she wants to share with us" Said Wesly as he was watching Fred literally bounce in her chair.

The intensity of glares passing between the two men finally began to die down.

Alright, we'll talk about this later, Spike." Said Angel as he stood up straight, removing his hands from the table.

"Righto. Looking forward to it, Peaches." Said Spike as he sat back down in his chair. He casually lifted his feet to place them crossed upon the conference table with a dismissive turn of the head away from Angel.

Angel make a small noise of annoyance and turned to go back to his chair. As he pulled out his chair, Angel addressed Fred.

"So, what has you so excited this morning, Fred?"

Carefully unwrapping from the cloth, Fred placed a mottled color stone in the middle of the table. It was a soft green color, with streaks of dark iridescent crystals running through it. The soft shape bespoke of a time when the rock had obviously been underwater. Everyone leaned in to take a closer look at the object that had gotten Fred so excited. Fred stood back triumphant. Spike took down his feet to get a better look at the object before him.

"Gentlemen, I would like to present to you an actual piece of the Quavolchan stone." Announced Fred.

There was quiet in the room. As the men slowly peered at the 5 inch rock sitting on the table.

"Fred, what's a Quavolchan stone?" Asked Angel looking to see if anyone else knew.

"This is a very rare and powerful object. I would hear them discussing it when I was in Pylea. I am just amazed that there was a piece in our dimension. You can't imagine the readings that I have been getting off it this morning in the lab."

"It looks like a rock you would find in a fountain. It doesn't look so special to me" said Gunn

"What does it do?" Said Wesley as he tilting his head looking at the stone.

"That's the thing, there's not much written about what it actually does. The texts in this dimension are so garbled, that they don't seem to make much sense. As far as what I am getting from my readings, it appears to refine energy."

"Is it dangerous? I mean to humans?"Asked Spike as he looked over to Fred's face.

"It is not harmful,….but nothing inclusive yet, I am just handling it with cloth till I get the full read out. I don't want to handle with bare skin till I know what we're dealing with. I am so excited! This is something of legend and I get to be the first scientist to have at it. Just imagine- I could get a Nobel prize! My parents would be so over the moon!" Fred said with a wide grin. She bounced a little bit as she said it. Her leg bounced against the table spilling the cup of blood that Angel had set down, mere inches away from the stone.

The cup tumbled over sending a rush of blood to the stone. With a quick reflex, Spike swept up the stone at the precise moment the blood touched it. The crystals suddenly took fire in the stone. A clear blue line shot out along the veins in the stone onto Spike's hand. It spread quickly up his arm and engulfed his entire body. It suddenly became so bright that everyone else in the room shielded their eyes. The room was enveloped in a blinding light. Suddenly the light died, as the stone rolled across the carpet. Blinking and tearing eyes followed the motion of the stone as it finally came to a stop. The eyes went back to the chair where the stone had started its' motion.

"Spike?"

….

What happened? Thought Spike.

He was just sitting in a meeting, when Angel's stupid cup spilled. He automatically grabbed the rock , thinking the blood would ruin Fred's pet research project. Then the blasted thing lit up in his hand. He tried to drop it, but he couldn't get his had to move. Suddenly, he was surrounded by fire. Everything just lit up in front of his eyes. There was no defined sound, just the ringing that you get in your ears when you sit too close to the speakers at a rock concert. Fire, huh? It wouldn't be the first time! Well, it didn't feel as bad as the fire back in Hellmouth. It was actually kind of refreshing. Can that be? A fire that is refreshing? It has traveled through the core of his being, but instead of destroying it, it had somehow…somehow…Well, something happned- just not sure what.

The light finally subsided from his eyes. Whatever that stone had done, it had really taken him for a ride. He could feel the energy slowly leaving his body, leaving it quivering in its' wake. He tried to shake off the effects, but hHis body did not, would not obey him. Whatever he had gone through, he had survived but at what cost. He was in some type of aphasic state. He was lying on his back looking up at the ceiling, he seemed to not really care what was going on.. He couldn't move at the present. Even to focus his eyes, seemed to take immense effort, he could only focus for a moment before his eyes blurred again. He was aware of muffled sounds coming around him. He was a passenger in his own body, not at the steering wheel anymore. If this had happened to anyone else, they might have panicked; this was just another experience in the stream of experiences that had been happening to him in the recent years. Spike could no longer be surprised.

Oh Bollocks! I better not be a bleeding ghost again!

He was suddenly aware of shapes in front of eyes. There was a general muffled sound of words being spoken. He could not make out the words. With a huge effort, he just make out the shape of someone standing over him. From the outline of the hair, he knew it was Angel bending over him. His last coherent thought was why this had to happen in front of HIM. Then the grayness took over as he just slipped away.

….

Everyone was staring at the small figure lying across the seat of Spike's chair. The clothes swallowed the tiny form lying so still.

"Oh, no" a small worried sob slipped from Fred's lips as she looked at the chair. She had been tossed out of her chair by the light explosion, she had pushed up and twisted around to look at Spike's chair. "Please let Spike be alright" she thought. She couldn't bear the thought of the generously giving person that was Spike was now injured as a result of her actions. She should have never brought that stupid rock into the meeting. She should have kept it under lock and key back at the lab. No, she had to have stupid show and tell! She beat herself up to think she had allowed pride to overrule simple scientific method. A Nobel prize- she would be lucky to just have Spike be okay.

Angel rushed over around the chair looking down at the small form. He stopped abruptly, stunned at what he was seeing. What? How? Spike was suddenly physically a small child. "Spike?" He said softly. Hoping to hear a typically Spike curse come back at him. There was no response. The eyes were fixed on the ceiling. There was a pulsating energy coming off Spike. It was almost like a humming vibration. Holding his hands around Spike, He was afraid that his touch would cause pain. "Spike." he tried again, no response. At one point, it seemed like there was a sudden movement behind Spike's eyes but it vanished just as quickly. He turned to Wesley and Gunn , "Get help."


	2. Chapter 2

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone was surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 2

"Oh Lord! What time was it?" Spike thought when he started to climb back to consciousness. Spike was lying on an exam table in the medical department of Wolfram and Hart. He could feel the hospital gown covering him and the hard intuitional padding under his back. Funny, he could feel the gown lying across his feet. Did Wolfram and Hart get a discount on irregular hospital gowns he puzzled? Well, he could feel them, that was a plus. He knew he was corporeal. Okay , that's good, he thought. The blanket of light that had been suspended in front of his eyes was dwindling down to a light fixture hanging just overhead. He began to make out the edges of the round fixture when he began to realize there was movement in the room. His hearing was still on the blink, the white noise still had not started to abate; but he could tell there were other people there. The muffled sounds bounced against his ears. He tried to blinked and started to move his head slightly. His head waggled loosely in a sideways motion. Good his body was starting to react, he could begin to take measure of what had happened. First thing he did was try to curl his toes. They did not immediately react. He tried again after a moment of dread, and was rewarded with a slow slight curling of the toes. Good, His legs worked; at least, that meant no stupid wheelchair! He, then, started to try to flex his fingers. They too responded, but much more slowly than he would have liked. Okay, it was slow going, but he was making progress, he told the imposing wall of fear in his mind. He would not allow despair to overwhelm him.

"Okay, calm down… calm down. You can handle it – No need to bloody lose it." He just had to talk himself through this situation. He could feel the wall of horror start to pull back. It was just then a large body in a white coat appeared over him. A terror, he thought long conquered came rushing forth causing his mind to spiral away to a time when he was treated as just a thing. From the very center of his being, came a response that he did not think he was capable of.

"Aaaaaa …..NOOO!" a child's scream carried throughout the room.

The visceral scream cut through the air. All the fear of the Initiative experience came crashing forth pushing the wall of fear over Spike like a tidal wave. It was boiling over him; he was floundering in it without gaining purchase. All he could see was the white coat pressing down on him which meant pain and inhumanity in his nearly overwhelmed mind.

The double doors of the medical section were suddenly thrown open as Angel came storming in. Hearing the wail that erupted out of the medical bay had set off his protective instinct in a way that he had never felt before. His eyes darted back and forth, scanning the area for Spike. The heartbreaking cry still ringing in his ears. The wail had touched him on a primitive level, igniting a possessive and protectiveness, Angel had not believed he contained. Quickly , he found the source of the sound. Spike was flat on his back with a technician leaning over him. A nurse was standing back by the heart rate machine, frozen in shock.

Without thought, Angel rushed over to the side of the bed, gathering up the small figure and pulling him to his chest away from the technician. The technician staggered back, stunned at the ferocious look coming from the tall man. Spike's body was as lifeless as full control of his limbs were still beyond his ability. He lolled against Angel's chest like a broken doll, eyes unfocused and unneeded breathing in a fragmented rhythm.

"Don't touch him!" Angel stared with murder in his eyes.

"S..S..Sir, Angel, Sir. We weren't trying h-hurt him. D-Doctors orders were to conduct b- b-biopsy tests. The doctor wants to d-document this development as Un-unprecedented. " stammered the technician. The technician put down the biopsy tool on the small table, next to numerous sample jars and tubes and stood back slightly.

The rush of adrenaline from the fright and motion had seemed to clear Spike's hearing remarkably well. He realized that Angel's arms had surrounded him, leaving him with a feeling of security that he had not felt…well, in a long, long time. His head began to feel clearer. Although he could not yet move freely, he could definitely hear the conversation going on over his head.

"He has been through enough today. I will not allow him to be treated as a lab rat." Said Angel menacingly.

"That's telling em, Peaches! Go get em! Leave only carnage behind!" thought Spike ,calming down and his usual mental buoyancy coming to fore.

Angel bent his head down to the small figure in his arms.

"Never again, Spike. Not while I am on this earth" Angel mumbled into Spike's hair.

"Was that a kiss on the top of my head?" thought Spike. "The big Poof must have really gotten carried away… It's really quite touching how much the old bloke cares." Spike could feel his hand laying over Angel's hand on his body. He responded to the emotion emanating from Angel by trying to move his hand. Spike slowly moved his fingers until the curled over Angel's hand. It took him a minute to realize that he was only holding on to Angel thumb. His hand was definitely smaller. Definitely too small….hmm that's odd.

Angel looked down when felt the small hand curled around his thumb. He lowered his head again to the small form.

"No, Little one. No one is going to hurt you ever again. You hear me? No one." promised Angel.

"Oh, this is going to be fun" Spike inwardly smiled.

…..

A couple of hours later, Spike was sitting up in one of the beds in the ward. His body had finally responding to his commands and he was able to catalog his body's situation. As he had become further awake, Spike had had time to realize that although his mind had not changed, his body was that of a small child. He looked down at his hands and his foreshortened legs sticking out in front of him. He was just glad to be alone, and to be away from those doctors who always wanted to experiment on him. About a half hour before, those irritating white coated poofs had been trying to interrogate him as he sat on the bed. He had had enough of their poking and prodding, so he was already short on patience when they started that tiresome interview. Yes, his name was Spike. Yes, he was a vampire. And that was all those stupid scientific lackeys were going to get out of him, he decided. He pursed his lips and refused to answer them until they finally gave up and left, conversing with their heads together and making notes on their ever present clipboards. He really didn't care what they thought. He had more important issues to deal with. He was sitting there on the hospital bed, contemplating the situation, when the curtain gently moved aside. Angel stuck his head around it and softly said "Hi."

Angel had just come from the briefing by the team of Wolfram and Hart doctors on Spike's condition. The doctors had given meticulous and in-depth report on the blonde vampire's condition. It appeared that there was a complete physical rejuvenation back to early childhood. The following interview indicated that Spike knew his name and that he was a vampire, but he also seemed to be exhibiting the behavior of a young child. They advised Angel and the team to treat Spike as a young child until the condition was otherwise disproved. Angel decided that he should be the first to approach Spike since they had a long history together, and might be less threatening. Angel looked at the small figure perched on the oversized hospital bed who was peering over at him with large blue eyes. Angel felt all the paternal emotions leftover from Connor well up in him again as he slowly moved past the curtain.

After the emotional scene in the examining room, Spike was little embarrassed at seeing Angel. Angel's behavior had really touched him. Emotional scenes were commonplace between him and Peaches, just not of the tender sort. Spike looked down, not knowing what to say. Where to begin? It was extremely unsettling.

Angel took that moment to slowly move forward and sit on the bed. He perceived Spike's silence to the reaction of a small frightened child. "Hey, it's okay." His hand coming up to gently stroke the back of Spike's head. "Wha?" said the voice in Spike's head and he froze in surprise. Not really knowing how to react, Spike sat still for a moment. The stroking continued until it started to amuse Spike. After closing his eyes for a moment to collect himself, Spike looked up at Angel with a small smile on his lips.

"Thank God." thought Angel. The last thing he needed for Spike to go through any more distress today. That cry earlier this morning had really affected Angel. His main priority was to keep the new little Spike safe and well. Angel moved his hand down to the back of Spike's arm. He returned the smile back to the child sitting on the bed.

"Lord, look at the Poof. He is really eating up this whole parental scene" thought Spike. "It was going to kill him to find out that the same old Spike was peering out of this smaller package. It was too good. It was almost too bloody sweet; but.. I guess I really should let him off the hook."

Spike opened his mouth to say something and just then the curtain flung open.

"Hey, How is the Spike man?" called out Gunn. Wesley and Fred were standing just behind him.

Spike's nerves had not completely recovered from this morning's scare. He jerked back a little when the curtain opened. He had hoped it wasn't noticeable, but Angel's hand on his arm had felt the small movement.

"Gunn…" putting his other hand up, Angel motioned that a little more gentle finesse might be required in this situation.

Spike noticed the gesture. He was impressed by the concern that Angel expressed for his new smaller being. It was going to be quite the let down to go back to the Spike that was reviled by Angel.

Fred came around the men and stopped by Angel.

"Can I talk to him?" she asked softly.

"Be gentle, okay? It has already been quite a morning." admonished Angel.

"Hi, there" she said softly as she moved slightly toward the end of the bed with Spike She kneeled down so her head was level with Spike's.

"Are you okay?" she barely breathed to him, looking at him from top of head on down. He really was the cutest little boy, she thought, all blue eyes and curly blonde hair.

Spike leaned forward and placed his hand on her cheek. Cocking his head slightly, he smiled at her, looking into the eyes of his one true friend at AI. Fred lifted her hand and held the small one that was against her cheek. She smiled serenely at Spike while a tear gathered in the corner of her eye.

Looking at this sweet scene, Wes leaned down to Angels' ear.

"Has he said anything?" he asked.

"Not yet. I don't want to push him. He'll talk when he's ready." Angel answered, looking protectively at the little boy in front of him.

Hearing this, Spike pulled his hand back from Fred and sat back on the pillows. He looked at Gunn, then over to Wesley and then finally to Angel. He pondered what they were thinking. Everyone was being so nice to him. It had been a long time that anyone had spoken to him with any amount of consideration with the exception of Fred. " In fact, all three of these gigantic lunkheads could do with a little more appreciation of me" thought Spike. He realized that this current transformation could just be the right weapon to teach these poofters a real lesson. He was stuck this way for the time being…might as well enjoy it!

It was just then that Spike opened his mouth.


	3. Chapter 3

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 3

"Can I go home now?" said the child innocently as he was sitting in the bed, looking up at the adults.

Angel sat back and looked nervously at the other adults in the room. Fred, Gunn and Wesley looked appropriately uncomfortable, glancing back and forth at one another.

"It was too good" thought Spike. "It was bleeding beautiful!" He thoroughly enjoyed the awkward silence his question had created. Making sure that he kept his eyes wide and trained on Angel, he waited patiently for an answer.

"Well…hmm…well, Spike" Angel stalled for time, desperately trying to think of an answer that would not terrify the child.

"You're here for a visit." explained Angel, anxiously looking over to Wesley for help. Wesley just returned the stare with wide eyes and a slight shake of the head. "Okay, no help there." thought Angel.

"Oh, ..Is my mummy visiting too?" Spike winced inside as he finished that sentence. "That may have been laying it on a bit thick, but in for a penny.." thought Spike. Regardless, it was fun to watch Angel wrestle with answers.

"No, she had to… ah..to..ah…see a friend." answered Angel with visible relaxation as an answer suddenly came to him.

But Spike wasn't going to let him off so easy. Pulling the big eyes at the poofter, he asked another question.

"Why?" Spike put a finger to his lips as he watched Angel tense up again. The finger across his mouth was mainly to disguise the smile that wanted to appear there.

"Just a lot of grown up stuff." Angel said simply with a shrug of the shoulders, hoping that answer would suffice. The atmosphere was getting to be strained, not that that was any of the child's fault.

"Why didn't she take me too?" Spike asked, blinking and tilting his head to the side. Spike thought "That should give the old heartstrings a little pull."

"Oh great. Like always, Spike is tenacious. I guess that wasn't a learned behavior." thought Angel

"She thought it would be very boring for you. She thought you would have more fun with us." replied Angel in a soothing manner.

"She did?" Spike didn't know how long he could keep this up without busting out laughing.

"Yes." Confirmed Angel with a comforting pat on Spike's leg.

"Why?" said Spike as he turned his head to look at the sheet covering legs.

"Because…it can be very exciting around here." Angel looking for backup from the group as he said this. Fred nodded at Angel in agreement. She also nodded at Wesley, who after she widened her eyes at him also began to nod. Looking over a Gunn, she intimated that he should also join the nodding activity. She turned back to Spike, smiling as she gave him a little jostle. Spike tilted his head up at that moment. Looking at the mass nod activity going on in the room, Spike thought "Oh Lord, it has suddenly become a bleeding carnival sideshow in here." Spike chuckled inwardly, carefully not to disturb his guise of an innocent child.

"Oh.." It took a moment for Spike to gather himself as he looked back down. Pressing his lips together so stray snicker would not escape, he allowed the quiet to settle in the room. Angel, on the other hand, relaxed as he was congratulating himself on handling this tricky situation.

"Why?" said Spike peering up at Angel.

The question was like a crossbow dart that pierced Angel. Just when Angel thought he had found dry land, the tide of this conversation was pulling him back out again. Angel was getting completely flustered by the steady stream of "Why?" questions coming out of the child's mouth. He had to distract the child. What could distract Spike?...then he thought of it.

"Hey, would you like a cookie?" as Angel leaned in like a conspirator

Spike looked surprised. He hadn't thought about it, but he was feeling rather peckish. Spike had intended on grabbing a couple of doughnuts at the end of the meeting this morning. Obviously, that did not happen and it had been a few hours ago.

The little boy nodded vigorously in response.

"Angel, it is getting close to lunch. I think a cookie…." Fred shut her mouth when she saw the look coming from Angel's eyes

"Well, let's go see about getting you one." Smiled Angel as he rose from his seat on the bed.

Angel picked up Spike under the arms and set him down on the floor. The adult size hospital gown pooled around Spike's feet. Angel held his hand out for Spike to take. "Hmm" thought Spike "Let's see how far we can get away with this?" In appearance, it may have looked like the small Spike was trying to gather up the excess gown so he could walk before taking Angel's hand. Spike made sure that it looked like controlling the gown seemed to be beyond his current capabilities. With a small smile, Angel swooped down and picked up Spike in one smooth movement.

The group made their way out of the medical center and over to the main offices. Spike looked over Angel's shoulder at the remainder of the team following them, as he rested his top of his head just under Angel's ear.

"That was a bit of fun. I definitely have to play this carefully. I almost lost it back there." thought a bemused Spike, "Can't be too obvious. Anyway, I guess I need to make some introductions: Alice, Rabbit hole, Rabbit Hole…."


	4. Chapter 4

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 4

Angel walked directly to the kitchen area of the main offices with Spike in his arms. He set Spike down on the counter. Spike sat there with gown hanging loosely on his small frame, watching Angel move around the kitchen.

"Let's see what we can find." said Angel as he began to open cabinets. He emitted a small sound of triumph when he came across a package of chocolate covered marshmallow cookies. He picked up the package and walked back beside where Spike was sitting.

"These are supposed to be really good." He told Spike as he opened the package next to him.

Angel picked up a cookie and handed it to Spike. Spike took the cookie gently from Angel's fingers. Holding the cookie almost daintily between his thumb and finger, he looked up at Angel in a questioning manner.

"It's okay." said Angel.

As the rest of the team came in, Spike brought the cookie up to his lips and took a small bite. Angel smiled as he watched Spike look at the interior of the cookie he had just bitten. His finger bouncing against the marshmallow sitting on top of the cookie portion, as he looked thoughtfully at the cookie. The finger traveled up to Spike's mouth where he tasted it. The cookie was abruptly brought up for a second bite.

" I hope he enjoyed this scene….like I never had a bloody Malomar before." thought Spike, "Although, it is a timeless cookie."

As the child was enjoying the cookie, Angel put his hand on Spike's leg to keep him on the counter. His team was watching the show in the kitchen. Fred told Angel that there were clothes for Spike in his penthouse. Since they knew what Spike's weight and measurements were from his experience at the Med Lab, she had asked one of the secretaries with children to purchase clothes, shoes and any other necessary items for the little boy. She had told the woman to focus on getting clothes in red and black, since those were the colors that Spike favored. Spike heard the last comment as he was chewing the cookie. "That's my girl!"

Angel took a quick look at Spike. He was sitting there with melted chocolate on his hands and face, still working on the cookie Angel had given him. The little boy seemed quite content. Angel turned his attention back to the group of adults in the room.

Wes felt it was the appropriate time to address the elephant in the room. He wanted to know what the doctor's report had said. How long was this going to last? Who was going to care for Spike in this state? Angel glanced nervously at Spike, who somehow had managed to get even more chocolate on himself from that cookie. He realized that they could probably discuss the issue with Spike in the room. He was not able to follow the discussion since he was so young.

Fred disagreed. "Little pitchers…" she sang to Angel.

"Let's not use names." Said Angel , tilting his head toward the child. Had Angel been able to see it, he would have seen the small child purse his lips and raise an eyebrow while looking at the cookie in his hands. Angel patted the small leg under his hand, but the child seem very involved with that cookie. "What was all the complaining on how difficult childcare was?..This was easy." Thought Angel.

"Go on, get on with it! I want to hear what the doctor said too! Okay, gotta remember not have any visible reaction or they'll take me out of the bleeding room. Just keep looking at the freaking cookie!" thought Spike.

"Okay, here's what we have so far. " Fred addressed the group. " After what happened this morning, I went back to review the results of the tests on the rock. It turns out that the crystals in the rock are extremely hemo sensitive. Anything other liquid touching that rock would not have ignited the crystals. The blood had initiated a reverse spiral of energy, time and space. The energy had to go somewhere, so when *someone* picked up the rock just as the crystals were firing, he became the recipient of that energy, causing that person to regress. It was just a comedy of errors that all these elements lined up this morning." She said looking over at Spike

"What would have happened if Sp..*SOMEONE* had not picked up the stone?" Asked Wes

All eyes went to Spike who was innocently working on a mouthful of cookie. Spike's appearance continued to present that the cookie was an all encompassing experience.

"The vortex would have collapsed in on itself. It would have started sucking our world into it..You know the usual end of the world stuff." Fred stated with her hands turned upward.

"So, *this person* saved the world again. Man, that's getting redundant for him". Gunn said, shaking his head.

"You bloody got that right!" thought Spike, " I really need to get a new hobby."

Angel glanced again at Spike, who seemed to be covered in quantity of chocolate that was growing exponentially. He still had that half eaten cookie in his hand. Angel marveled for a moment at how long that cookie was lasting, but didn't think about it too long.

"So, what happens with the *recipient*? How long is he going to be like this?" asked Wes

"Yeah, how long till the team is back to full fighting strength?" echoed Gunn

"The doctors weren't sure. They did note that the energy was dissipating this morning which is a good sign. However, this is the first time they've seen any of this energy affect a living being or in this case, a non-living being; they don't know if *someone will return to normal or be left in their current state". Angel told the group. "They do believe that *this person* will be in this state for a while, but they don't know how long. It could be a matter of hours, days or even longer."

"Bollocks! Okay, try to keep it under control. Nothing you can do but wait it out" Spike reasoned with himself inside his head. "Everyone is working on it. It is only temporary. It will be all right."

Angel at that moment, turned his head to regard the small boy on the counter and moved a little closer. The child had been remarkably quiet and still though out the conversation. A very messy looking Spike looked back at Angel and smiled as he brought the cookie in his hand up to his mouth.

"My gosh, he is still working on that cookie? How long could one cookie last?" Angel asked himself

It was then that he noticed he had left the open package of cookies next to Spike on the counter. Spike had been helping himself to cookies throughout that entire adult conversation. Angel pulled the package over. There were five empty slots in the package. That means that Spike was working on cookie number five. That's where all the chocolate covering Spike came from. Angel was mentally kicking himself over this. Looking at Spike now, he could see there could be no way that one cookie could have caused such a mess. Spike looked like he could be a chocolate version of a zombie from a bad B movie. Both of Spike's hands were covered in messy sticky concoction of chocolate and marshmallow, there were even little bits of marshmallow and chocolate stuck to the hospital gown. Then, there was the face…it was like an exercise in Dadaism. Chocolate had been distributed over the small boy's features like a discordant symphony, making Angel grimace as reeled back. Spike had managed to get chocolate all over him, there was a smear of chocolate on his forehead and even a little bit perched on one ear.

Spike was enjoying Angel's face as he took in his handiwork. Spike realized with the first cookie that there was no way his current level of coordination and size would allow him to eat the cookie neatly. He decided to just go with the whole tactile experience. He smiled broadly at seeing the discomfort on the older vampire's face as he viewed Spike's chocolate and marshmallow masterpiece.

Angel pried the remaining cookie out of Spike's hand. "Here, give me that." He said to the small figure. Spike made a small noise of complaint, but let the cookie go. Angel, then, carefully picked up Spike from the counter to set him down on the floor, keeping him as far away from him until he could clean him up. Spike took that moment to spin around and reach for Angel. It was only Angel's quick reflexes and longer reach that kept Spike at bay. Angel kept one hand on the clean top of Spikes head, while he blindly reached backwards to pull off some papertowels. Try as he might, his hand could not find the roll of papertowels, so Angel took a quick look away from Spike. It was at that moment that he no longer felt Spike's curls under his hand.

"That was entertaining, but why should I only share this mess with Angel?" thought Spike as he rounded the corner to the rest of the group, waving his arms over his head. " There's enough for everyone!"

"Stop! Stop! Stop him!" yelled Angel "Don't let him touch anything!"

The group who had been in deep conversation with each other, turned and wheeled back at Spike's appearance. Fred made a small yip sound when she saw the small grinning and obviously filthy child coming toward them. The group broke apart in an "Every man for himself" type action, each hoping that Spike would follow someone else.

"Spike! Spike! Come here!" called Angel as he pulled so hard at the paper towel roll that half the roll unrolled. In his urgency, Angel threw the roll of paper towels across the room when he tried to tear some off.

Spike was having too much fun to respond. He was giggling as he followed Gunn around the couch, trying to touch him. Spike knew that Gunn liked his stylish suits too much to dare let chocolate and marshmallow covered hands touch the expensive silk. Gunn leaped over the couch to get away. Laughing, Spike followed the motion with his hands and left two chocolate handprints on the back of the white sofa. Angel let out a low guttural groan when he saw that the small dark handprints blaze against the creamy pale leather of the couch.

Then, Spike was chasing after Wes. He had gotten Wes corralled on the far side of the room and was now chasing him around the conference table. The shear peal of laughter coming out of Spike was adorable. He crowed every time he saw Wes' horrified face when they changed direction. He had seen this man face down monster with little more than a pencil as a weapon, but when there was dry cleaning involved…the man was an absolute wimp! Spike finally decided to end the chase by going under the table. He was just about to move the chair out of the way to duck under the table when he was grabbed from behind.


	5. Chapter 5

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 5

Fred had managed to fill up the bathroom sink in Angel's penthouse with warm water and thrown a wash cloth in it by the time, Angel came in carrying Spike. Spike was still giggling from his pursuit of Wesley. Angel holding the child turned out so the messy hands was away from his body. The excitement and the addition of the sugar intake on such a small body was making the child a regular wiggle worm.

Fred saw that the toilet seat lid was down. Fred told Angel to sit down on the toilet in order to keep a hold of Spike. She was afraid that Spike would tear out of the room again if he got free again. Angel sat down and put Spike crossways on his lap. Spike lifted up a hand toward Angel's face, but Angel soon had an arm in each hand effectively immobilizing Spike, which Spike found hilarious.

Fred squeezed out a wash cloth with warm water and began to clean Spike's face. He was still very much enthralled with his little adventure.

"Can we do it again?" asked Spike as he turned toward Angel

"No." answered Angel with his face impassive.

"Why?" sniggered Spike.

With a pained look, Angel acted like he didn't hear him. He just looked at Fred over Spike's head when he heard that question. He was not going to fall into that trap again.

Spike was still chuckling and smiling broadly at Angel and Fred, when she approached with the washcloth in her hand. She began to wipe at the chocolate, but wiping it with only warm water was only able to lift a thin layer. The marshmallow had congealed, making the concoction into some type of glue. Seeing the less than spectacular results, Fred turned to soap the washcloth back at the sink. That and a little muscle grease proceeded to finally remove the chocolate from the squirming Spike.

"Hey woman, a little less rough on yours truly." thought Spike, "Leave me some of my face!" as the washcloth made repeated rubbings.

Spike's hands were next. Angel holding them out in an iron grip so Fred could scrub the little fingers. The washcloth had to be rinsed repeatedly and the sink was refilled three times before Spike was deemed suitably clean. At the end of the session, Spike felt every nerve on his face and hands tingling from the scrubbing.

Looking at the abused and oversized hospital gown on the small figure, Angel asked, "Where did you say those clothes are?"

…

Lunch had arrived by the time the trio had returned to the conference room. There was a sandwich plate out for Fred and a metal carafe of hot blood waiting for the vampires. Angel poured himself a mug of the blood and went to the head of the table. After this morning's events, they were way behind schedule. Angel wanted to finish this morning's meeting. New issues had to be discussed as to who was going to cover Spike's cases and where Spike had left off.

Fred, who was corralling the seemingly still vibrating Spike, picked up the carafe and went back to her normal seat. She motioned Spike to come over to her. She put her finger up to her lips to tell him they had to be quiet as he grinned knowingly at her. She picked up Spike and put him in his normal chair at the table. She, then, pulled his chair up and over to her, so he was within her arms reach. She, then brought out the sippy cup that she had wisely brought from upstairs and filled it half full with the blood. She put her hand around the cup to check the heat. She then screwed on the top of the cup and set it before Spike.

Spike watched every one of Fred's actions. He was impressed at the extreme care she was taking. He thought what an extraordinary young woman Fred was. From his chair, he looked up to her face and gave her a grin. She leaned over and put her arm behind his back, returning the smile. That's when Spike saw the sad expression in her eyes. She must be blaming herself for the accident this morning, he thought. He wasn't going to allow that.

"Donn' be sad." He quietly said, "It's okay."

He reached up, but couldn't quite reach her face, so he patted her neck. She looked down at the small child that seemed to express such great perception. "Yep, Spike was always special." she thought. That's why she treasured him so much as a friend. It hurt her to think that she may have endangered him this morning. And there he was, trying to make her feel better. She smiled down at the child, giving him a wink and a pat. She pulled her sandwich over to her and began to take a bite.

Spike turned around and looked at the sippy cup. "Really? Did they think he couldn't handle…well, wait" He thought again about that whole cookie mess that had just happened. His coordination was way off. "I wouldn't trust myself with an open cup of blood. What an opportunity lost" he chuckled to himself in his head. Picking up the cup, he inwardly shrugged and brought it to his lips.

"Ewww. Pigs' blood." he thought as he recoiled from the cup. Lord knows, how he hated it! Despite Angel's self superior attitude about always drinking animal blood at the firm, Spike always thought pigs blood was particularly vile. He thought it tasted like feet. The Poof could have at least had it blended with other animal blood, so the taste was better. With a look of disgust wrinkling his face, Spike thrust the cup back on the table with such force that it tumbled over.

Spike sat there with the blood still in his mouth. Then the thought occurred to him that he didn't have to swallow the odious stuff. He could just imagine the spectacle he could make with the blood, he thought with an element of glee. He began to sit forward as he brought the blood to the front of his mouth and pursed his lips. But before he could issue the liquid from his mouth, Fred's hand holding a napkin was pushing his chin up.

"Ah, ah" she said, giving constant upward pressure with her hand so Spike's chin was pointed toward the ceiling.

Fred's eyes had not left Spike the whole time during the meeting, so when she saw his response to the blood in the sippy cup, she had quickly reached for her napkin. It suddenly became quiet as everyone in the room watched the drama happen in the small space at the table. Spike struggled slightly against the larger hand under his chin, his own hand reaching out and gripping the arm of his chair.

"Okay… okay, honey. Just spit it into the napkin." Fred murmured maternally.

Fred maneuvered the napkin to cover Spike's mouth and chin. Spike looked at Fred's face out of the corner of his eye and slowly spit the blood into the napkin. He didn't want any of that blood left in his mouth, so he continued to spit while tonguing out the sides of his mouth. Fred waited until he was done, and then folded up the napkin and put it aside.

"You didn't like that, huh?" asked Fred as she moved the cup away.

Spike shook his head as he first looked at her with big doubtful eyes and then lowered them. He didn't know why but he was a little embarrassed by the whole scene. He leaned his body toward Fred, and she rubbed his back in response. It was mortifying to have his planned attack be thwarted with such a simple gesture. Worse than that, Fred's kindness was making him ashamed of the whole mean spiritedness of his planned action. "Maybe, maybe I should reconsider…...Oh, who am I kidding? Vampire. Evil." he said inside his head.

"I think I'll take him out of here. Angel, is it okay for us to use your office?" she said as she looked at the glass panel that stood between the Executive Conference room and Angel's office. "Since I'll be right over there, you can just call me if you need me." Angel nodded. Fred stood up and pulled Spike's chair back. "Come on." she said enthusiastically as she held her hand out. Spike scrambled out his chair and grabbed her hand. The men watched the young woman and child walk through the open doorway into Angel's office.

Every once in a while during the meeting, Angel would look over to see motion in his office, and from the muffled sounds coming through the glass, it sounded like Fred and Spike were having a great time. After about thirty minutes, Fred's perspective on an issue regarding the origin of a particular phenomenon was needed. Wes volunteered to fetch Fred. Fred came to the door talking to Spike over her shoulder. "Wait there, sweetie." Angel could hear her say. The explanation on the phenomenon turned out to take more time than anyone expected. Fred got very involved with the description of the details as she stood in the doorway, with her back to Angel's office.

All of a sudden, the lights went off throwing the room into complete darkness as metal shutters came slamming down over the windows. A loud blaring siren filled the room. Then, just as quickly, red emergency lights illuminated the room. You could hear metal doors coming down in the hallway and locking into place. With a slow dread, Angel realized that Spike had found Emergency Demon Lockdown button in his office.

Standing behind Angel's desk, with his hand still hovering over the red button, a satisfied smile crept across Spike's face.


	6. Chapter 6

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 6

As Spike was standing there smiling to himself, he felt himself being abruptly lifted under the arms and set down a few feet away as Angel rushed up to the panel. Spike turned to watch Angel pull out a ring with a multitude of keys. The room that was only lit with the emergency light, so the red light made it difficult to see clearly as normal. As Angel was trying to find the correct key to reset the system, it looked like the dim light was making the job a lot tougher.

Spike made sure he kept his face blank as he watched Angel. To his great enjoyment, it appeared that Angel was having difficulty finding the right key.

Angel rummaged the keys in a frantic manner, feeling for the right key. Time after time, Angel would bring up a key up to his eyes only to discover it was the wrong one. When Angel did think he found the right one, it wouldn't fit into the emergency panel. Muttering expletives to himself, he suddenly stopped and look at the small head of blond curls next to him. He realized, regretfully, what words were hanging in the air like a mobile over the child.

"_Oh, the big poof's face is priceless!"_ thought Spike, getting a great kick out of the whole situation. Spike's face was lit up with an open smile as he relished the idea of Angel thinking he had corrupted Spike's innocence.

Inside Angel's mind, he hoped Spike had not heard the words that had just been spoken while he was looking for the correct key. Angel cringed to think of the looks he would get as Spike repeated those words at the top of his voice. Looking around wildly and seeing Gunn standing on the other side of the desk, Angel turned to Spike.

"Why don't you go see Gunn?" he commanded rather than requested.

"Okay." piped Spike

Spike thought, Okay, I'll play along." He turned around and charged around the desk. He slightly tripped as he turned the corner and went down on his hands. He quickly got back up and ran up to Gunn. Fred's quick eye noticed Spike staggered just a bit after he got up and went back into a full run up to Gunn.

"Gunn!" he yelled as he charged the big man.

Gunn leaned back as he saw the little dynamo run up to him. Spike crashed into Gunn's legs with a small laugh as Gunn was pushed back. Gunn smiled as the child's infectious smile was unleashed on him. He chuckled as he leaned down and picked up the child.

"Did you do all this?" asked Gunn as he held the child in his arms.

Spike nodded and beamed at Gunn's face.

"You know, you're a regular cataclysm, buddy." Gunn said as he bounced Spike in his arm.

He leaned back against Gunn as they watched Angel finally locate the correct key and reset the emergency system. Fred came up beside Gunn as laid her hand on Spike's back, giving it a small pat. By the time the normal lights came back on and the shutters and doors were back in place, Spike had molded his body against Gunn's arm.

Angel turned around from the panel. He looked at the little figure in Gunn's arms. He walked around the desk and motioned toward Spike.

"Spike, come here." He said gently.

Gunn placed Spike on his feet as Angel came around the corner of the desk and knelt down.

"Did you press that button?" Angel asked pointed to the panel.

Spike smiled and nodded. "Oh this conversation is going to be good!" Spike thought.

Angel let out a small pained sigh .

"I liked that button. It was fun!" Spike declared with zeal.

Angel looked up to the ceiling. He was amused by the child's enthusiastic answer. He had to smother a smile, since this was supposed to be a serious conversation.

"Why did you press the button?" Angel asked with a renewed seriousness

"Cause it was red. I like red!" answered Spike. _"How's that for answer, Peaches?"_ Spike said in his head

"You shouldn't touch things that you don't know about" lectured Angel

"Why?"

"They could be dangerous"

"What's day-n-jruus mean?" as Spike thought " _I can't believe I am getting away with this_!"

"Well, it is something that little boys should stay away from. As a matter of fact, they could…" Angel began to postulate about little boys staying away from danger.

Spike had turned away from Angel, he was wanting to sit down. There was no way he was going to suffer through another of Peaches' lectures again today, Spike thought. He started to move away from Angel. Angel put his hand up to stop the child from moving away.

"Hey, listen to me." Angel gently admonished.

"No, lemme go. I don wanna talk no more!" muttered Spike, brushing the itching curls from his forehead with the back of his hand. The muttering had a whine quality to it.

"Stop. I am not finished talking." Angel said a little stronger.

"No! No!" yelled Spike as he tried to pull his body away. His head was aching and fuzzy and Angel's lecture was grating his nerves. He just wanted to get away to somewhere quiet, but Angel wasn't letting him Something wasn't right…it was almost overwhelming.. Before Spike could grasp what was happening, he found that he had flung himself on the floor.

Fred moved over to Angel as the adults looked down at the small child on the floor. Spike was lying there, with his forehead pressed against the floor.

"I think it's naptime." Fred quietly said to Angel

She had forgotten about Spike's vampire hearing.

…..

Upstairs at the penthouse, Angel kneeled down at the side of the bed and began to remove Spike's shoes. He unfastened the Velcro on one shoe as he looked up at the overtired child's face. He knew that he was going to have to handle this carefully if there was not going to be any more drama. After the second shoe was off, Angel leaned over and gave a gentle pressure to Spike's shoulder.

"Lay back and close your eyes." He said soothingly.

Spike shoulder went back a little, but he soon sat forward with a determined look in his tired eyes.

Angel realized that he was going to have to come to some sort of compromise to get the child's cooperation. He decided to offer the little boy an olive branch.

"Tell you what…If you lay down for ten minutes and you're still awake when I come back. You can come back down with me. Okay?" Angel proposed.

Spike nodded and tried to hide a stifled yawn. As he laid down on the bed, Angel left the room, closing the door after him.

Hearing the door close, Spike sat up. He was really tired and a nap sounded really, really good. Spike looked at Angel's bed with its' pristine and highly expensive bed ensemble. _"Much too fussy, if you ask me. How many bleeding pillows is one man supposed to have?" _Spikethought, _"If I am going to get any rest, there's going to have to be some bloody redecoration."_ as he grabbed the first of many pillows.

…..

About ten minutes later, Angel quietly opened the door. There was no movement from the bed, so he quietly made his way over to it. There were pillows strewn all over like debris from a warzone. Up toward the top of the bed, in a space surrounded by pillows lay Spike. He was sleeping on his stomach. Spike looked like he had fallen asleep in a fighting stance. One leg was bent like it was about to deliver a kick, while the other was straight out and had the expensive silk comforter wrapped messily around it. Spike's right arm was stuck out perpendicular from his body, with his hand clenched in a fist. Angel couldn't clearly see the other arm, but it appeared to be tucked under Spike's body in a blocking move. Spike had burrowed the top of his head under a pillow, so the top of his face was covered, only the nose and mouth could be seen. _"This is elemental Spike."_ Angel thought as he looked at the slumbering child.

Angel looked at the comforter and decided to cover Spike and put the bed to rights. He pulled Spike's right arm down to his body. Spike made a noise of complaint, kicking his legs, his head turned the other way and then back and his right arm was back where it started when all had settled. Angel decided that it wasn't worth disturbing Spike to cover him, so he backed out of the room, closing the door after him.

When Angel returned to his office, the remaining members of the AI team were there.

"Is he asleep?" asked Fred, looking up from the couch.

Angel nodded.

…

It was a little over an hour and a half later, that the doors of Wolfram and Hart burst open explosively.


	7. Chapter 7

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

Author's note: I would like to dedicate this chapter to people, who are not morning people. You know who you are.

…

Chapter 7

The tall man who was leading the mercenaries gave the signal to launch the offensive on the offices of Wolfram and Hart. The first wave of his men burst through the doors securing the lobby and immobilizing the staff there. The next wave went directly to Angel's office. Angel was almost to the doors when they suddenly opened and he was faced by four men holding sophisticated rifles, the lasers of their weapons trained on his chest. The men stepped aside as their leader leisurely came into the office, still keeping their weapons trained on Angel.

"I wouldn't push your luck, Angel. These men have been armed with the latest anti-vampire weaponry." The man said casually. He walked past Angel over to the desk, picked up some of the papers on the desk, looked briefly at them and tossed them aside. He gave Angel an obviously pleased look.

"Elkhorn." Angel growled

A moment later, the rest of Angel's team were brought into his office under gunpoint. With the exception of Spike, the entire AI team was in the office. The office staff had been contained in another location in the building. Angel's head whipped around when he heard Elkhorn direct two of his men to clear the rooms in the penthouse upstairs.

….

The two soldiers had nearly cleared the entire penthouse when they got to the last room, Angel's bedroom. Equipped with a high power rifle and an infrared device, they opened the door to Angel's bedroom, the soldiers quickly stepped to the side to avoid any opponent that may be waiting for them on the inside. Seeing no movement as a reaction to the door swinging open, the two people worked as team as they slowly proceeded into the room. The first soldier coming into the room first acted as point man. She held up his gun as she turned quickly from side to side to check the room for any kind of creature lurking there. The man followed her, his gun hanging by a strap by the back of his arm, as he watched the screen of the infrared device that he held before him. He held it slowly as he swayed back and forth, waiting for a beep on the small screen to tell them if anyone was hiding in the room. After sweeping the room and finding nothing, the pair relaxed and lowered their equipment. They did not notice the small still figure obscured by the surrounding pillows on the extremely large bed.

"That's the last room. I don't know what made that big vampire jump when the Captain ordered us to clear his penthouse. Nothing here." Durant said, shaking her head.

"Looks like a pretty expensive lifestyle." said an impressed Pulaski, looking around the room. "The vampire must be living pretty lush."

"Yeah, too bad he's a pig!" Durant laughed, indicating the mess of bedclothes on the bed and kicking a pillow that was on the floor hear her foot.

The two soldiers laughed as they left the room, still not noticing the motionless form on the bed. As it sometimes happened, when he was a bit knackered, Spike could sleep through an earthquake and not awaken. Spike was buried so deep under the pillows that it was difficult to differentiate between him and the tangled bedding. Thankfully, because of his vampire status, the infrared gauge did not report his presence. Unaware, he had managed to escape the notice of the soldiers, he continued to sleep as the door slowly drifted closed but did not latch.

…

Angel and his team with the exception of Spike were being held in Angel's office by an officer and four men. Having been informed that the soldiers were armed with combination of solar spectrum encased wooden bullets, Angel was being held with his team staring daggers at Elkhorn. Although Angel tried to hide it, his team could tell the vampire was filled with anxiety for the wellbeing of the sleeping child upstairs. The AI team noticed the soldiers that were assigned to search the penthouse returned to Angel's office. They declared the building secure as no other occupants were located in the housing upstairs. With relief, Angel and his team realized that the soldiers had not located Spike. Angel's hearing had told him that no noise was coming from bedroom, so Spike was still asleep. Remembering the mess that Spike had made of his bed, Angel surmised that the cursory view the solders had given and the heat monitor had not given Spike's location away. He smiled with relief to himself. The smile quickly faded as he assessed the situation. When Spike awoke, the soldiers would likely scare him. He didn't want the little boy to experience another bad fright today, Angel's protectiveness coming to fore. Angel hoped that the situation would be resolved before the little boy awoke from his nap; although, current indicators were not leaning that way.

"Elkhorn, what do you want?" Angel said, his eye piercing the man.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on the wealth of luck you suddenly find yourself in" the tall man said grinning.

"Cease the pleasantries. You're here for a reason. What is it?" growled Angel.

"Word is that you managed to find a funny little green rock. It is supposed to be quite special." Elkhorn said smiling, and then he became deadly serious. "I've decided I want it."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Angel said his face like stone.

Angel turned and walked away from the man, his eyes going to Fred. Fred looked back at Angel for a moment and then looked over to Elkhorn, her face betraying nothing.

….

Spike's hand began a slow ascent across the sheet toward his nose. As soon as his hand reached his face, he began to vigorously rub his nose, waking himself with the gesture. Making a little snort, he turned his head and snoozed for a minute before abruptly flinging himself over on to his back. The stack of pillow he hit rained down on him causing him to wake even further. Spike pushed back on his elbows with his eyes refusing to open up. "Ugh_, it is tougher to wake up than to pull myself out of tar remembering a drunken episode in La Brea. I gotta remember that this small body doesn't have the endurance of the adult version_." Spike still didn't open his eyes, but he did roll his head around his shoulders 360 degrees, fighting to wake up. _"Cripes! Did I actually throw a wobbly in front of everyone in Angel's office? I gotta get hold of myself."_ He pulled his head up and took a deep breath to make a decision to gather himself and open his eyes. "_Oh, Hell. I don't have to be anywhere…just a few more minutes_" With that thought Spike, pulled his elbows out and let he fall back against the bed. A small grunt came from his lips as his body hit the mattress. Spike let himself drift off again

….

Downstairs, Angel didn't move but his eyes traveled up to look at the ceiling. His team looked at each other as they noticed the concentration in Angel's eyes. Fred turned her back to one of the guards and mouthed the word Spike? Angel blinked affirmation. Slowly, everyone's eyes turned toward the ceiling, listening closely for any sound of a child moving upstairs.

…

Ten minutes later, first one of Spike's eyes and then the other blinked open. He slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position. His sight was hazy, his head felt filled with cotton and his body was clumsy and slow. With a groan, Spike slipped off the bed and landed on the toe of one of his shoes. He stepped stumbled back, looking at the shoe as he steadily blinked his eyes. _"There's my shoe…Where's the other one?..Oh, there it is, under the bed._" Rubbing his hand on the side of his head, Spike sat clumsily down and reached for a shoe. He spent several minutes trying to fruitlessly jam his foot into the shoe, but when that seemed to demand more attention than his mind was willing to give, he just tossed the shoe aside. Taking a deep breath, Spike looked around the room. He remembered everyone was down at the office. He staggered to his feet and made his way to the door. He pulled it open without a sound and shuffled into the hallway.

There were two soldiers the end of the hallway by the elevator, one standing with his hand resting on his gun and the other leaning against the wall. They had been assigned to guard the entrance to the penthouse floor. It was a lame assignment. They had quickly become bored guarding what they thought was an empty area and had begun talking. They were soon relaxed and sharing small jokes as their backs were turned to the hallway. They didn't see the small figure come out of the bedroom.

Spike was still so sleepy that he could only see a few feet ahead of him. He did hear the voices talking, but it didn't occur to him that they shouldn't be there. Spike walked over to the far wall of the hall way that was spottily decorated with a large tropical plants, he leaned his head against the wall, still trying to shake the manky feeling he was experiencing. A moment later, one of the soldiers had sensed movement behind him. He looked back over his shoulder, but didn't see Spike who was now hidden from sight by the plants.

Gathering his determination, Spike pulled his head away from the wall and shook it to wake up. As the world came into focus, he noticed the soldiers down by the elevator. He didn't quite believe his eyes and blinked twice to clear his vision. _"Oh, soldiers….Huh? Soldiers! Soldiers here with guns! That's not right."_ Suddenly from his spot, Spike was suddenly awake. What were they doing here? Cor Blimey! How he hated soldiers. He would love to take these two soldiers out. He realized at his present size, the best he could do might not be good enough. How many were there? Listening, he could tell there were a number down in the offices below. He could also tell that only Angel and his team were in the office, probably with some preening tosser telling them his poncy plan.

Spike noticed the soldiers were continuing on in their conversation, so he used his vampire speed to go back to the emergency stairs at the back of the penthouse. He opened the door to the stairwell which had used many times before to sneak unawares to restricted areas of the firm. He had developed the skill to jimmy the door without the alarm sounding. He was glad to find out that that particular skill had not left with his adult size. After he entered the landing, Spike leaned back against the door to listen for any activity meaning someone had detected his presence. He heard nothing.

How was he going to get out of this situation? Oh, sure, back when he had an adult body, it would have been a matter of knocking a few heads and kicking a few arses. Easy Peasy, one two three. – Matter settled. Unfortunately, being stuck in this child's body meant a violent physical resolution was out of the question. He looked at the small hands and willed them to change back to adulthood. _"Grow! Age! Come on then! I bloody well mean it!_" he shouted in his mind, contracting his face and shaking his hands in front of him. He looked again, hoping that his mind would have affected the desired change. Nothing. He was stuck in this bloody infant's body. He paced back and forth on the landing, balling his hands into tight fists. Okay, he thought need to make a list of the facts. His strength and coordination was greatly reduced. Hell, he couldn't even yell a good battle cry, unless he wanted the enemy to double over in laughter. He had to think of some way to get an edge on the enemy. Alright then, take physicality off the table, what were his options? Then, the perfect idea promptly occurred to him and the plan quickly came together in his mind.

First step, he had to get to down from the penthouse and down to the underground levels. Spike looked through the railing at the many stairwells he had to go down. He thought about using his vampire strength to leap from landing to landing but that would make some noise that the soldiers might hear. He didn't want them to know about his presence, at least not yet. It was better to go down step by step, albeit clumsily. After the first level of stairs, Spike realized the detriment of his shorter legs on the steps, each one taking a lot more concentration and coordination and he was in short supply in both those categories. It was going to be a long arduous climb down.

"_This dodgy little body will probably need another nap when I'm done."_ Spike said to himself with some degree of exasperation.

With determination and taking several breaks along the way, Spike finally reached the underground level with holding cells that lay below Wolfram and Hart. The guard station was completely deserted. He saw the the passcard sitting on the guard desk. He climbed up on the chair to retrieve the card; then he got down and rolled the chair over to the electronic scanner. He slid the card through the scanner and the door buzzed open. Spike leapt off the chair and grabbed the door while it was still open. He made his way down the labyrinth of aisles of cells holding all types of creatures, some overtly dangerous and others, even more so due to their unassuming appearances. Spike went to the section with most dangerous creatures. He was luckily able to leap up and swipe the card to open the door to this section. He walked past a dozen cells, with creatures screaming and charging to grab the child as he walked past. Spike finally got to the cell at the back of the section. He stopped and looked at the menacing creature inside. The creature fixed his eyes on the child and slowly lowered itself to stalking position. It was just then Spike spoke up:

"Langdon, I've got a proposition for ya!"


	8. Chapter 8

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 8

Angel heard the small footsteps run to the back of the penthouse, followed by the very small sound of a metal door open and close. He held his breath as he listened for the sound of adult feet in pursuit. There were none. He inwardly sighed with relief as he realized that Spike had woken up and escaped to a hiding place without the soldiers detecting it. Angel tried to think of where the sound of door had come from in the penthouse. He realized it was the door to the emergency stairwell. Spike had managed not only to open the door, but had opened it without the alarm going off. Spike was always surprising him with his sneaky little skills Angel thought and slightly shook his head.

Fred noticed the small change in Angel's expression and raised her eyebrows minutely at him in question. Angel twitched his eyebrows back at her with a small smile to let her know it was okay. Angel attuned his vampire hearing, concentrating on any sounds coming from the stairwell. He could detect the sound of small uneven footfalls on the stairs. Spike was coming down the stairs. Angel listened intently. He heard Spike reach the level of the offices. He held his breath as he waited for Spike's next move. He, then, heard the child continue down the stairs. Where was he going? If he went downstairs, he could go out the lobby out into the daylight. Was Spike aware to the danger the sun posed to him? Angel started to sweat. What if Spike continued all the way down to the lower levels? There were things down there that would love to get their hands on a small vampire. It was time to resolve this situation quickly.

He signaled to his staff to be ready and he turned to Elkhorn.

"So, you're here because of idle gossip." Angel said despairingly as he casually moved over to the side of the room and stood just before two of the guards

"I wouldn't say it was idle. When something like a Qualvolchan stone makes an appearance in our dimension, you got to believe that certain parties are going to find out." Elkhorn confidently sat back on the edge of Angel's desk.

Wes and Gunn eyed the guards standing around the group, looking for any weakness.

"Oh come on. It still sounds like just a random story making the rounds." Angel said with a small chuckle.

"So, you would think…But if it wasn't for the extreme power readings emanating from your building this morning, I would not be here now."

"Are you monitoring us?" Angel cocked his head

"Of course. It always pays to keep your eye on the active players in the game" Elkhorn said with a satisfied smile at Angel.

"So, what do you want with this stone?" Angel took a step back toward the guards.

"What does anyone want: Power. It seems to be an easy way to secure it." Elkhorn said as he lazily reached into his pocket.

"Power, huh. Not many people can actually handle it."

As he said the last word, Angel grabbed the barrel of the rifle of one guard under his arm as he elbowed the other guard in the face. Gunn grabbed the guard next to him, forcing the rifle to point up to the ceiling. As Fred hunched down, Wes tackled the last guard with a flying leap, knocking him over to the floor.

Suddenly, a beam of light came from the device in Elkhorn's hand. The light surrounded Angel, immobilizing him in a burning haze of light.

Elkhorn lowered the small device in his hand. With a small laugh, he lifted his hand to show the room what looked like a cell phone.

"It is funny what you can find on the market these days. They've discovered a way to harness solar energy for personal use." He mused. "They had hoped to use it to capture the self tanning business. It was a failure, but imagine how surprised I was to find how effective it was to bind vampires."

As Elkhorn a lowered his hand, his face became serious.

"Alright, you've made your predictable bid for freedom, now can we get down to business. I would suggest your people cease their struggle. That is if they don't want to see you deep fry before their very eyes. Right now you're experiencing the lowest setting, just enough to give you a little color." He smirked.

Angel gasped as the burning radiated around his being. The AI team stood back from the guards. The guards stood up, grabbed their weapons and resumed positions in the room. Elkhorn stood up from the desk and walked over to Angel.

"Your staff needn't worry. The effect is only temporary. You should be fine in a half hour or so. But let us understand each other, I will not be broached in this matter. Where is the stone?"

"I have it. " Fred said as she stepped forward

…...

"What are you doing here, child?" growled the beast, irritated that children had been allowed into the area he considered his sanctuary.

"Hello Chief. You mean you don't recognize me? Your old poker chum, who you owe eight kittens?"

"Spike?" Langdon said with surprise in his voice.

Langdon's appearance changed from a twelve foot menacing beast to the size of normal man, the teeth and claws receding. On the monster meter, he went from a nine down to a two in the intimidation factor.

"Your's truly. Same old Spike; but now in a more convenient travel size." as Spike held up his hands

"What happened to you?" Langdon asked as he came toward the front of his cell, looking at the child from top to bottom.

"I came out on the wrong end of a balls-up encounter with a particular stone. It's just temporary. I'll be back to full right size before ya know it." Spike shrugged

"So, what are you doing down here?" as the creature looked quizzically at the child.

"I told ya. I have a proposition for ya."

"Not interested." The demon began to turn away.

"Really, that so. Funny, I could see it wiping out ya debt to me and maybe even throwing a few more bleedin kittens your way." Spike countered, looking up at the ceiling.

"Keep talking." Langdon stopped and looked back at the small figure.

"As you can see. I am in a bit of a bind size-wise at the present. There are some over excited soldiers upstairs giving us a bit a trouble. I thought you, bein a reg'lar chum and all, might lend me some assistance with your special gifts. In return, we could negotiate an outcome ta our mutual benefit."

"You realize that I am not into violence anymore. I put that all behind me." Langdon tilted his head toward Spike.

"That's why I came to you. You know, the soul thing won't allow me to agree to having the tossers killed; but that doesn't mean that I would not object to having a bit of fun with them." Spike came closer to the cell and leaned against the corner. "I thought you might be willing to break the monotony around here. Are you game?"

"I don't know." Langdon said flatly.

"What do you mean: I don't know. This is a perfect opportunity for you to get out of here… " Spike said with a stunned expression on his face.

"I don't really want to leave. I have a pretty sweet setup here. I've been here a long time. I am not sure I want to go back to living in the outside world again. I remember before Wolfram and Hart captured me, I was living in sewers or abandoned buildings. It was dirty, dank and disgusting. I never knew where my next meal was going to come from . Now, I have this nice dry cell with three squares a day. I have my flat screen television, my big comfy recliner, the Saturday night poker games….I just ordered that bed you can jump on without spilling a glass of wine. I got a regular Thursday night thing going on with Noreen two cells down..I got a life here. Why would I want to put all that in jeopardy?"

"Hey, I didn't know things were working out for you so well down here. Nobody said you had to leave" Spike replied.

There was a pause in the discussion as the two demons looked at each other across the cell door.

"You and Noreen, huh?" mussed Spike "I would have never expected that."

"She's a truly beautiful lady."

"I am not doubting it, not at all. She seems to be real high quality. Just saying…my tastes run more to the two eyed variety."

An uncomfortable silence made the next seconds drag, then Spike spoke up again.

"Hey, the place is under new management now. If we're successful, you might wind up with a job offer from upstairs. I actually know the new boss. I wouldn't say we're friendly, but he has been acting kinda paternal lately. You wouldn't be the first demon working upstairs. I am sure a job offer could be in the making.

"Like I would want that? Getting up early every morning to hear the overly bubbly morning news team tell me about the weather I am going to miss . Wrestling into a monkey suite to work nine to five with a bunch other suckers. Handing in reports that are never read to a supervisor who barely missed being declared mentally deficient by the state. Falling asleep with your eyes open in meetings while some nimrod takes a simple two second idea and turns it into a performance of the Iliad. Being pressed by co-workers to buy over-priced chocolate bars to support their pigeon toed kids' sports team! You know the kids I am talking about-they're never going to have a career in sports. Talk about your own personal ring of hell. No thanks, I just stay down here and mind my own business."

"Blimey, it sounds like you've given this a lot of thought. Did you eat some bureaucrats before you were captured?" Spike wrinkled his brow, while looking at the demon. "Buggar it all! It doesn't mean we can't work something out. Let's say we do something a little less apparent to the populace. Nobody has to know that you're involved. How do you feel about being devious?"

"You know that's my preferred medium." Langdon smiled knowingly.

"Then it sounds like we're coming to an agreement, mate"

"Hey, Spike. You know those extra kittens you mentioned. Would you make them Siamese?"

"Huh, Why?"

"I've been craving asian all week."


	9. Chapter 9

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 9

Langdon and Spike had first become friends when Spike was a ghost wandering the evil law offices of Wolfram and Hart afterhours. Spike had come down to the holding cells one evening, exploring and walking through the walls. He happened to pass through the corner of Langdon's cell one evening, when the demon spoke to him, causing him to pause.

"So, what happened to you?" the demon asked the man passing through wall at the corner of his cell.

It was then, they started their friendship. Spike had no problems making friends that were demons, after all he was one himself. He could certain identify with anyone who had seemingly rebelled against authority.

Langdon was a Gaxoejin demon who had among other skills, had the ability to phase matter. He was the only one of his kind in this plane of existence. He had come from a warrior society in a dimension of violence and magic. There, he was considered a disappointment to his clan. His uncommon desire to refrain from violence, had made him an outcast in his family. So much an outcast, that they had magically exiled him into this dimension. The fact that he had been discarded by his family with magic had left a bad taste in his mouth. He had managed to survive several years by his wits in this strange world of warm blooded creatures and oddly blue skies, before Wolfram and Hart had managed to capture him. He had refused to cooperate with evil law firm's plans to exploit his talents and had eventually wound up forgotten in the back corner of the High Security wing. Over the years, he had began to understand the world he found himself in, thanks in part to unending cycle of Law and Order episodes and Lifetime movies on the television.

During one of the early evenings together, Spike discovered that Langdon was able to phase a chair in to the same resonance that Spike exuded as a ghost. Spike was able to sit down for the first time since he had sprung from the crystal, with that gesture a solid friendship was born. Every evening, Spike would make his way down to Langdon's cell for a friendly game of rummy since Langdon was also able to phase a deck of cards to Spike's resonance. They remained tight friends, even after Spike became corporeal. Spike realized that Langdon was the best choice to help him with his mission tonight.

Spike stood aside as Langdon phased through the door of his cell.

"Well? What do you have in mind?" the demon asked Spike.

…..

Spike explained the situation upstairs as he knew it. There were soldiers holding Angel and his team hostage most likely in return for some treasure or weapon. He also explained that everyone considered him to be a child in mind and body, but that Spike wasn't letting anyone know that his mind had remained the same and only the body had changed. Spike had decided to take advantage of this assumption in this plan to rescue the team. Knowing that since Langdon didn't want to broadcast his participation in his plan, Spike realized that Langdon's actions would have to be clandestine. "_Oh well, so much, the better_" Spike thought.

Not looking forward to a climb back up the necessary number of stairwells, Spike and Langdon phased up from the holding cell level up to the level of Angel's office. They ended up just down the hallway and around the corner from the lobby. They arrived just in time to see Fred being escorted out of Angel's office and back across the lobby in the direction of her lab.

Spike and Langdon decided on a signal to indicate what he wanted Langdon to phase out of the room. Luckily, Langdon could see through walls, so he didn't have to follow Spike to keep an eye out for the signal. When Spike wanted to be phased out of the room, he would indicate it by rubbing the back of his hand across his nose. That way no one would realize the seemingly small child was involved with what was going on.

"Ready? We're clear? Let's see how bloody stupid these soldier really are." Spike grinned at Langdon.

Without his shoes, Spike made no noise as he walked behind the pair of soldiers who were escorting Fred between them. No one noticed the child following them for several minutes. It wasn't until they got the landing before the lobby stairs, that one of the men paused and saw the movement behind them.

"_Okay, here we go!"_ thought Spike, as he pulled the most innocent expression and tried his best to look small and non-threatening.

The soldier's eyes widened as he saw a small child who looked at him unfazed. The man froze in surprise for just a moment before even thinking to move his gun toward the child. The little boy just tilted his head and looked past him to Fred. Sensing the other man had stopped, the other soldier halted Fred by grabbing her arm before she could go up the stairs. Staggering a bit from her sudden stop to her momentum, Fred turned around. Looking briefly up at the men, the little boy made a slow procession between the two stunned men and went over to grab Fred's left hand. He pressed himself up against her leg, with his head tilted down. She reached across her body to put her right hand on his shoulder.

"Spike." She said with gentle surprise.

One of the guards, reached up to announce in the radio that a child had been located in the lobby. He reported that said child had been contained. Spike turned the front of his body toward Fred and faced away from the soldiers, so they could not see the extremely pleased expression on his face. "_Oh, what you don't know._" thought Spike with a certain amount of delight.

…

The radio suddenly came to life on the lead solder's shoulder in the office. He bent his head over as he listened to the incoming call from his men. Angel also heard the call about the child being located in the lobby, a slow anger began to burn in him. The soldier proceeded over to Elkhorn. Elkhorn looked amused and signaled to the man.

"Well, it seems that there was a little surprise lurking out in the lobby. I've instructed the men to bring it back when they come back with the stone." Elkhorn announced.

The burning radiance surrounding Angel was just beginning to disapate. He began to curl his fingers into a fist, thinking of what would happen if Elkhorn meant any harm to Spike.

….

The soldier received the direction from the radio. They motioned Fred to continue toward the lab. One of the soldiers motioned with his gun to take Spike along with her. She guided Spike over to the stairway railing and put his hand on it. She began help him up the stairs, when she was pushed aside by one of the soldiers. He grabbed Spike up in his free arm. Spike took a deep breath and held himself stiffly as they went up the stairs in his best imitation of an outraged child. The man set Spike down when the group got to the top of the stairs. Spike ran over to Fred and the hand she held out for him. The party went in to the Wolfram and Hart Chief Science lab.

Once they were inside, Spike ran ahead and clumsily tried to climb on one of the stools around one of the lab tables. Fred moved quickly to settle him on the stool and then moved some of the glass vials out of his immediate reach. She turned to the guards.

"The stone is in my office. One of you should watch him." She commanded.

As he twisted from one side to the other on the stool, Spike realized what the fuss was about. _ " So the soldiers want the stone. Hmm."_

One man stepped back against the door to stay with Spike. Fred and the other guard went up the short staircase to her office. A few moments later, Fred was coming down with the stone in hand with her guard behind her. Spike at that moment went up on his knees on the stool and knocked all the beakers on the table onto the floor. The different chemicals mixed on the floor and began to smoke.

The mother tiger came out in Fred and she whirled upon the soldiers, causing them to take a step back.

"You have to do more than stand there, if you're going to watch him." She roared.

She rushed over and put the rock on the corner of the table and roughly pulled Spike off the stool to get him out of danger. She placed him on the other side of her as she turned to deal with the smoking chemicals. She yelled at the soldiers to grab towels and the chemical clean up kit.

"Quickly!" she bellowed when they did not move fast enough to please her.

During the excitement, Spike was taking slow side steps to the corner of the table while the adults were rushing about. He reached up grabbed the stone and rubbed the back of his hand across his nose. He disappeared.

All three adults had been concentrating on the mess of chemicals on the floor when the first guard noticed the stone was gone. He pushed Fred slightly out of the way as he made his way over to the table. Fred was too engrossed in containing the spill to notice what had caught the guards attention.

"Where is the stone?" he asked Fred as he was looking around the room.

"It's on the table." Fred responded without looking up. She stood up and looked at the table and then froze. Her eyes frantically moving around the floor and later the room.

"Where is Spike?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 10

The radio went wild with chatter on the lead soldier's shoulder in Angel's office. Angel could hear that the child and the stone had gone missing. The soldier pulled up the radio to his ear, he replied with instructions that the entire team to start a sweep to locate the missing item and child. The man stepped over to Elkhorn to inform him of the situation.

…

In the meantime, Spike had rephrased back beside Langdon down the hall. Spike looked up at Langdon and gave a small shudder. Being incorporate again was not an experience that Spike particularly enjoyed. He winked as he opened his hands to show Langdon the object he held in front of him.

…

The lobby suddenly went wild with sound and movement. The sound of running feet and radio chatter filled the area. Orders were called out as the mercenaries spread out in a search pattern. While Spike and Langdon looked out from their hiding place, they saw Fred being pulled out of the lab while the other soldier moved forward to join the mercenaries.

"Don't you scare him. He's just a little boy." Fred pleaded with the soldiers. "I think I could find him if you would just let me…" The last bit was cut off as she was pushed into Angel's office.

The lobby was filled with the two soldiers from the penthouse and the two stationed at the lobby alongside the two who had just escorted Fred to the office. They gathered to converse on the plan of action and the search pattern. Spike and Langdon retreated to a copier room. Spike handed the stone to Langdon.

"Well, here is what is causing all the fuss, mate!" Spike said as Langdon looked at the stone with some obvious skepticism. "Hey, it is what brought me to my present state. If it hadn't gotten turned on accidently, I would still be my grand specimen of grown vampirehood."

"That's what turned you into a little kid? This remnant looks like it is on its last legs. It's got maybe enough juice for one more run but its' going to need help on ignition." Langdon said as he turned the stone in his hands.

"Can you start it?" Spike asked hopefully. He hoped that Langdon had enough skills to get the rock to change him back. If he got back to his full size then they could take care of this whole situation quickly.

"Sorry, no. It is so low on power, its going need a super high energy burst just to start the cycle, let alone direct the energy spiral. Think about it like an old clunker that needs jumper cables to get started." Langdon shook his head.

"Oh Blimey! I am in a right bloody pickle." Spike said as he put his hands on each side of his head. Spike realized that if the stone was going to turn him back, he better be careful to keep control of it. First thing he had to do was get rid of these soldiers.

"Okay, time for the next bleedin step." Spike sighed. "I need to get captured. I'll see ya at the meeting point, mate." Langdon nodded in response and disappeared with the stone.

Spike walked out of the copier room. He wandered away from the lobby and started humming a little tune as he aimlessly walked down the hallways. Before he knew it, two guards suddenly appeared before him. He looked up at the towering men with wide eyes and waited.

…

The doors of Angel's office were opened and Spike was escorted in by the two soldiers. The remaining soldiers were still in the lobby. Spike saw Angel and the team and ran over to them. _"Okay, show's started"_ he thought.

"I'm back!" Spike yelled enthusiastically as he ran ahead of the soldiers toward the team. His seemingly childish exuberance managed to momentarily lift the tension in the room. Spike stopped and looked at Angel, looking a little surprised.

"You look different." Spike said. He held up his hand to Angel and then pulled it back, looking at his hand and the sensation centered there. "You tingle." _What has Peaches gotten himself into, now? _

"Go see Fred." Angel answered with gritted teeth and gingerly moving on his feet "Fred.." he called.

Fred motioned Spike to come over to her. As Spike got to a few feet of her, she grabbed him to her. To counter, Gunn and Wes moved forward in front of the pair, putting themselves between the pair and the mercenaries. Spike turned around feeling Fred legs against his back as she placed a hand across his chest pulling him back toward her. Spike peered toward the figure sitting on the corner of Angel's desk.

"Soooo, this is our surprise guest." Elkhorn said looking over at Spike being pressed up against Fred.

"Leave him alone." warned Angel as his expression changed to a scowl at Elkhorn.

"It's a pity, I really can't." Elkhorn said with a satisfied smile. He turned toward his men. "Did he have the stone on him?"

The soldiers stated that the child did not have anything on him.

"Bring the child over here. I would like to talk to him." Elkhorn motioned with his hand.

One of the soldiers went over and pulled Spike away from Fred. Fred took a sharp breath as Spike was pulled from her.

"It's okay." Fred called to him as he looked back at her. Spike knew she was trying to reassure him in this situation. _What a girl!_ he thought. He would have like to have given her a wink to let her know everything was okay, but he simply smiled at her keeping in mind his child personae.

Spike cheerfully bounced forward, hoping that he was projecting an impression that he was unaware of the danger in the office. He was planning to take this pouncy nutter on a little bit of a wild ride.

"Hello. What's your name?'" Elkhorn looked down at the child brimming with energy that stood before him at the desk.

"My name isa Spike." He said giving Elkhorn a once over look and then seemingly losing interest and looking around at the room

"Spike, you were in the lab with my men?" Elkhorn questioned.

_Hmm how to handle this?_ Spike stopped his movement. He put an index finger of one hand up against one of his incisors and nodded. He looked down and then up at Elkhorn in a calculated process to appear as a child.

"I made a mess. Am I in trouble?" He asked around the finger, looking up guiltily at Elkhorn.

"We'll just have to see about that." Elkhorn said, enjoying the worried look that appeared on the child's face. Spike's chin came forward and started to quiver a little bit. _Gotta make it look realistic, _he thought.

Fred interrupted with a warning to Elkhorn, "If you upset him, you won't get your information."

Elkhorn realized that threatening was not going to be the best method to obtaining the rock. He needed to change his tactics and fast, if he was going to avoid a meltdown by the child. He sighed and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Hey, we've all made messes. You're not in trouble." Elkhorn reassured the child as he stood up from the desk and went over by the windows.

_That Fred… what a piker!_ Spike thought. I better give her a sign that I am okay. Spike looked over at Fred, who nodded reassuringly. He let his body visibly relax and smiled at her.

"Did you see a rock when you were in the lab?" Elkhorn asked in another tactic to get information about the stone from the child.

"A rock?" Spike cocked his head and looked puzzled.

"Yes, did you see a rock?" Elkhorn asked again with decreasing patience.

Spike shook his head and began to take interest in the items on the desk..

"Did you pick up something in the lab?" Elkhorn tried another line of questioning, but Spike did not react to the question.

Standing next to the desk, Spike had picked up a pen from the desk and was now scribbling over some papers lying on the corner of the desk just above his eye level. He seemed very intent on his artwork as his hand went back and forth in a fervent motion. He appeared to be so enthralled, that he continued to ignore the irritating man's questions. Elkhorn was determined he was going to get that information from this child. With slightly subdued anger, he walked over and grabbed the Spike by the upper arm, pulling him up on his toes. Elkhorn opened his mouth to ask his questions again a little more intensely, but he was interrupted by Angel.

"Get your hands off him! I swear if you hurt him…." Angel commanded. The last thing Angel wanted Elkhorn to realize that Spike was a vampire. Elkhorn looked from Angel to Spike and then released his grip on Spike.

"Look, we're all friends here. It would be such a shame if we had to lower ourselves to physical violence, but I like to keep my options open." Elkhorn said in a snide manner as he released Spike's arm and pulled his hand back. Spike took a step back as he was released, looking over at Angel. It still surprised him that Angel could be so protective of him.

"Do you know where the rock is?" Elkhorn bent down and looked directly into Spike's face. Spike shrugged and looked over to the AI team.

With an air of resignation, Elkhorn turned to a pair of his men. "See if he will show you where he's been. Maybe he'll lead you to the rock."

"Maybe, one of us should go with him?" Wes volunteered, not wanting Spike to be out of a member of the team's sight.

"No, I want you all where I can see you." Elkhorn commented and then leaned down to Spike. "You're going to show the soldiers where you've been today. Okay?" Spike pulled back a little bit from the adult leaning over him_. Just what I had in mind, Poof! _he thought.

One of the soldiers came up behind Spike and began to lead him out of the room. As Spike went out with a pair of the soldiers, he happily waved back to the AI team from the doors.

"Let's just hope this little trip will be fruitful or things could become unpleasant when the child returns." Elkhorn announced.

Hearing Spike threatened, the entire AI team looked at Elkhorn and started to individually envision on the many ways to kill their captor.

…..

Spike led the two soldiers out to the lobby where the remaining four other mercenaries were standing. One of the soldiers put his hand on Spike to halt him while the soldiers spoke to the other mercenaries.

"Hey, it's Wolfram and Hart's secret weapon." One of the soldiers joked indicating Spike.

The soldiers with Spike told the others that they were following the child to see if he could lead them to the rock. While the soldiers discussed the situation, Spike noticed the female mercenary, Durant. He took it upon himself to start flirting with her. _Let's see if I still have my way with the ladies? _He thought_ It always good to have a lady on your side. _Spike walked up to the female mercenary, smiling his special smile at her.

"Is that your gun?" Spike asked pointing at her gun and tilting his eyes at her, blatantly ignoring the other mercenaries.

"Yes." Durant answered as she looked down at the small boy's headful of curls and resisted an impulse to ruffle them. She, instead, resettled her gun strap on her shoulder

"I like it. It's shiny." Spike continued to press on. He saw her eyes look down at him for a moment longer than was necessary. He could see he was making some headway with her.

"Yes, it is." Durant looked briefly down at the small boy's flirting and a small smile appeared at the corner of her mouth.

"Can I touch it?" Spike asked hopefully. It's a long shot, Spike thought but if he could get his hands on one of these weapons….

"No." Durant said, as she brought up her chin and began staring straight ahead

"But, I want to.." Spike sighed with frustration. Durant smiled at the child's reasoning, it was very endearing, and managed to worm its way beyond her defenses.

The mercenaries broke off their conversation and began to look over at Spike. One of the men turned toward Spike and said:

"Hey, little kid, where's the rock?"

"I donn know." Spike answered with his best innocent expressions.

"Why don't you show us where you've been today?" said one of the men assigned to accompany Spike.

"I was downstairs, but I donn like it down there." Spike stated. "There are monsters."

"Monsters, you say? Don't worry we won't let them get you.." One of the soldiers snickered and then added. "much." Spike pulled out his best acting ability as he pretended to be frightened and backed away from the group.

"Lay off! He's just a little kid." Durant said, clearly angered by the treatment the child was getting from the adults.

"Nuhuh! I donn wanna go down there again!" Spike brought up his hands to his eyes. His inner voice said: _Oh well, here goes nothin! Peaches, you don't know what I do for you?_

"Hey, it's okay. We'll all go with you, okay?" Durant said comfortingly as she knelt down next to the upset child. "Remember we have guns too, so no monster is going to get you."

"Really? You'll go with me?" Spike whispered and looked hopefully at Durant, making his eyes as huge as he could. "Everybody?" Spike looked around as the men looked at each other and nodded as a group. "Well...Okay."

"Sure." Durant said as she gave a warning glare to the rest of the team in the lobby. She had not enjoyed watching them tease the cute little boy. The men looked abashed at being caught in the act by Durant.

As the group made their way over the elevators to go to the underground levels, Spike thought to himself "_And I didn't even have to say please."_


	11. Chapter 11

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 11

As the unenthused mercenaries filed toward the elevator bay on the floor, they decided that Spike must have been on the second underground level that held the containment cells as dictated from the building's floor plans. Once everyone was in the elevator, Spike demanded with an secret delighted malice that he be allowed to push the elevator button. As a result, the group arrived at the second underground level a good ten minutes later, since Spike had gleefully hit all the buttons on the right side of the panel. It had only been the quick reflex of the adult standing behind him that kept him from hitting every button on the panel. Every time the doors opened on an unnecessary floor, the sounds of annoyance that the squad members made along with the constant clicking of the 'close door' button as the elevator stopped on a floor was like music to Spike's ears. Spike made no effort to keep the smile from appearing on his face as he looked up at the men.

Upon reaching the desired level, the soldiers exited the elevator and gathered by the security desk at the entrance of the containment cells. Once they had regrouped, they looked around and noticed that Spike had remained in the elevator. Durant nodded to Pulaski with her eyes traveling back to the elevator, the pair returned to the elevator to retrieve the child. Pulaski stopped at the entrance, propping the doors open with his back as Durant went inside to talk to the little boy.

Spike was ready to commence with his next great scene. He had to make sure that no suspicion would be put on him when the next stage of the plan went into effect. As Durant knelt down, Spike immediately plastered himself against the beige carpeted wall of the elevator.

"What's your name?" she asked, trying to calm the anxious child with a bit of small talk.

"Spike." He answered, pulling his chin down and shifting his eyes to look at her briefly. He then returned to nervously watching the doorway.

"You want come with me, Spike?" Durant asked, with a gentleness in her tone.

"No, you go. I stay here." Spike said emphatically. "_I gotta make sure these blokes think I don't want be down here. I hope this works_." He thought.

"You want to stay here all alone?… By yourself?" Durant asked tilting her head in seemingly puzzlement.

"No! You stay with me." The child in front of her asserted.

"I can't. See, I have to go with the others. Why don't you come with us? I promise to keep hold of your hand." Durant offered.

Despite trying to make every attempt to maintain her tough outer exterior, Durant felt sorry for a little boy who was so obviously scared of what lay beyond the elevator. She looked over at Pulaski, who also seemed to have some sympathy for the kid in his eyes. Pulaski turned his eyes away when he became aware of the Durant looking at him. Knowing there was a job to do, she sighed with new resolve, and turned back to Spike. Durant stood up and held out her hand to the seemingly little boy. Worrying his bottom lip, Spike looked up at her and then slowly took her hand. As the three of them made it back to where the remaining troopers were gathered, the men looked at Durant with mocking expressions on their faces. Seeing the smirks on the faces of the soldiers waiting there, she stared back into their faces and simply shrugged at them. Disregarding the men, Pulaski tilted his head toward the kid and asked.

"Okay, kid, where to?"

Spike pointed to the entrance of the containment units with a small regretful gesture. The security door at the entrance was closed and Spike was glad to see that Langdon had returned the security pass card back to the security desk. Pulaski reached over the desk to grab the chain with the card. The men went through the entrance in pairs, each holding a gun at eye level, canvassing the area for anything that might leap out at them. The group threaded their way through the gleaming hi-tech corridors between the containment cells, surrounded by the thrashing and screams of the demons and creatures along each side. The smell of the humans seemed to increase the noise level and frenzy of the inmates in the encompassing cells to an unearthly degree. Despite their highly trained backgrounds, the men would reflexively jump as demons and creatures launched themselves at the barriers of their cell as the humans passed. Durant kept Spike in the center of the group, making sure that she kept contact with the child she was shepherding through the containment area at all times. Every now and then, just for effect, Spike would stop and cringe back into her, unknowingly inflaming a strong protective instinct in Durant.

"This is absolutely harrowing..for a little kid. I can see why he didn't want to come back down here." Pulaski muttered out of the side of his mouth to Durant

"I just hope those barriers stay up. It could get really messy." She said as the gaze from her eyes was alternating from one side to the other.

Seeing no results on the outer reaches of the containment center, the group moved farther into the cell complex toward the high security area.

"Hey kid, Are you sure the kid made it in this far?" a puzzled Pulaski asked.

"I got lost…" Spike answered, simply.

Using the pass card once again, the squad moved into the smaller high security area that held the more dangerous creatures. It was a gleaming tight space with larger cells which held creatures that were the most dangerous. The corridors were much narrower, so the team was grouped much more tightly together. The group has moved halfway down one of the corridors, when from around the corner, a loud roar of a creature thundered through the hall. The cells shook with motion of a large creature had obviously gotten loose. The solders froze, measuring the situation. A huge monster suddenly appeared at the end of the hallway and then was gone. The men began to fire their weapons but soon realized that the high security area had a weapon dampening field. The weapons would not fire. The men began to take defensive positions, waiting for the next move from the creature. Spike's eyes bounced back and forth with mirth as he took in the reactions of the team. Spike thought Langdon was doing a truly smashup job. He enjoyed watching the panic appear on the faces of his escort.

Suddenly, a swirling maelstrom began to take shape inside an open empty cell that stood across from the group. It was a towering dark cloudy mass with flashes of sparks and lightning. The spinning vortex exuded began to pull at the group, drawing them toward the open cell. The slickly antiseptic and glaringly white corridor offered little handholds as the men were plucked up and drawn into the cell. The men fought against the force, falling to the ground and scrabbling to find anything to anchor them against the pull of the phenomenon in the cell. A few of the men were pulled off their feet, banging against the walls and flying into the cell. In the midst of this chaos, Spike was unexpectedly clipped by one of the men being tossed about like tennis balls. He was flung back violently against a wall as his head made a crunching sound against the wall. Lights flashing in front of his eyes, Spike slid down the wall and crumpled into a small pile at its base. Launching herself toward Spike, Durant tried to pull him to her as she struggled an losing war against the pull of the maelstrom as she and Spike were dragged into the cell. Pulaski being the most sizeable and muscular of the team, was the last to be pulled in the cell. He managed to get a handhold on the doorframe of the cell. Once team was inside, the doors began to close on the cell sealing the people inside. As the whirlwind began to dissipate, Durant who had kept hold of Spike managed to get to her feet. She made a series of timed lunges pulling the small unmoving body over toward the doors. Pulaski who was still on the ground but nearest to the closing doors, crawled over and wedged his gun between the doors, propping them open for a few seconds longer. He reached over and thrust the chain with the card into Durant's hand and yelled "Go". With a huge effort, she dove in between the doors with Spike in her arms before the doors crushed the gun holding them open.

Spike was dimly aware of this turn of events as his head was still buzzing from the blow he had received. With her arm still wrapped around a semi-conscious Spike, Durant quickly stood up and looked around for the monster. The monster screams reverberated around the cell block, making it impossible to determine what direction they came from. Finally, deciding to find an area of defense, Durant ran with Spike to the back of the rear of the high security area. She came across a well appointed cell that was empty. If she was going to improvise a weapon against this creature, it would be better to have a cell with more options. Looking down, she saw she still had the chain with the card wrapped around her hand. She swiped the card and as the doors opened, she pushed Spike and herself inside instantly. It was only when she was on the inside that she discovered that the door controls were on the outside of the cell. She found that she could not close the doors behind her. She pushed a stunned and confused Spike to the back of the cell and began taking the cell apart for anything that could be used as a weapon.

A few moments later, the daze that has encircled Spike's mind had finally begun to dissipate. He realized that somehow the teamwork of Pulaski and Durant had managed to allow Durant to escape from the trap that he and Langdon had set for the mercenaries. He was surprised and impressed at the effort of the two mercenaries to rescue him. He had planned that all the soldiers would be trapped in a cell. Now that he found himself and Durant in Langdon's cell, he didn't know what to do. He stood there for a moment watching Durant frantically looking for anything in the cell that could be used as a defense against the demon. Spike looked up and saw to his horror, the stone sitting on one of the shelves in the cell.

Durant heard again the savage roar of the monster coming toward their location. She knew they were running out of time. She began to quickly rummage through the shelves, knocking everything off or tossing it across the room. Spike saw that stone had been knocked down and waited till Durant had her back turned and quickly picked up the stone, sliding it in the pocket of his jeans. Langdon appeared at the opening of the cell in his full intimidating glory. Spike saw Durant grab hold of Langdon's state of the art television, Langdon's prize possession and pull it off the wall and throw it toward the demon. It crashed in a sparking and smoking heap on the floor in front of the demon.

"NO! NO! NO!" a horrified Spike yelled from the back corner of the cell. He put his hands over his head, closing his eyes, not bearing to see the sight. The destruction of Langdon's most prized television was not in the plan.

Durant thought the little boy was yelling out of fear. She swooped over and pulled him to her as she stood between him and the creature, ready for hand to hand combat. Spike slightly pulled back his hands and looked up at the woman in disbelief. It was then that he saw Langdon standing there frozen at the front of the cell, just staring at the mangled mess that used to be his super expensive, excessively large, up to date home enteratainment unit. Leaning out from behind Durant's back, Spike with his hands on his face, caught Langdon's eye and silently mouthing the words "I'M SORRY" to the demon. Langdon stood at the open entrance of the cell in disbelief, every part of his sanctuary that he had created in his cell was now lying in rubble.

Seeing that the creature had ceased its' attack and was momentarily frozen in place, Durant grabbed a surprised Spike under the arms and tore down the corridor. She got to the door of the high security area entrance and using the card, bolted through it. If she did not have the child, she would have gone to free her team, but it was more important to get the child to safety first. Using the card at the second entrance, Durant ran down the corridors and out to the elevators. Running into the elevator, Durant spun and quickly hit the buttons to return upstairs. Once the elevator started its' upward motion, she leaned back against the wall of the elevator. Spike's eyes looked over to the side at Durant since he was still clutched in her arms. He realized that he was now on his way back to Angel's office with one of the mercenaries and worse yet, he had the stone in his pocket.

"_Buggar! Well, that didn't go as bloody well planned."_ Spike thought. _"I gotta think and think fast or everything is gonna go all bleedin pear shaped."_


	12. Chapter 12

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 12

As the elevator made a low humming noise as it climbed up the shaft back to the main floors of Wolfram and Hart, Spike was in a quandary over his next plan of action. Looking at the soldier's uniform, Spike was running a hundred different scenarios in his head. Should he continue with this charade or he confide in Durant about his true status? Durant did seem truly concerned for his welfare. But, as he looked at the olive drab colored shoulder, he was being clutched against, it reminded him that although she had saved him in her perspective, she was still part of the other team. She was a mercenary, up for bid to the highest bidder. Sure, she had saved him, but that might have just been part of her job. People acted pretty different, when there was money involved. He had to remember what she was. He decided to keep up the little kid act a little longer. It is always better to be a little underestimated in these situations.

He felt Durant's hand come up behind his head as she pulled back to regard him. She knew he had suffered a head injury alongside the bad fright in the containment section. She was anxious to what his current state was. She was surprised that she did not hear a sound from the child. She expected a frightened child to be yelling his head off, unless they were too frightened. It caused her more concern that Spike had not made a sound. Only his eyes met hers which betrayed his unease, while he was still debating what his next action should be.

"You're okay now." She told him reassuringly as she smoothed his hair.

His unearthly quiet disturbed her more than if she was handling a squalling child. It might be a sign of physical or emotional trauma so great, it could not be expressed. She placed him on his feet in front of her. He made no attempt to move away from her and he was so distracted that it unnerved her. She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his arms in a way to comfort herself that the child was okay. She pulled down his shirt and straightened it. As she did so, her hand brushed up against an object in his jeans pocket. Curious, her hand felt the object through his pants pocket. Then reaching inside, she pulled out the stone and held it up in front of Spike's face. Spike's eyes blinked and came alive as he recognized what was being held in front of him.

'What the soddin hell? I am just standing here like a bleedin idiot and let the stone out my possession.' Spike thought to himslef disgustedly.

Spike had been so entwined with his thoughts of what had just happened and what his next move should be, that he had not been paying attention to what was going on in the elevator. As a result, his reflexes were a little late as he clumsily reached for the stone, but saw it taken out of the scope of his reach when Durant stood up.

'Where did that come from?' Durant mused. She reasoned that the team members assigned to search the child must have done a lousy job. She looked down at the little boy who was looking up at her with distress written across his face. He was reaching for the stone, but she moved it up above his reach

"Mine!" Spike declared, as he stretched toward the stone.

His mind was trying to decide whether he should use his remaining vampire abilities…but how would that improve the situation. He would still be stuck in this elevator until they got back to the Wolfram and Hart main office level. He knew that was not a good option. He had to play his cards under the assumption that he was just a little kid.

Durant looked from the stone down to the child who was standing on his toes, reaching up with splayed fingers toward the stone. She was glad to hear him say something and react to the circumstances surrounding them. With an inner sigh of relief, she knew that it meant that he was alright.

"Where did you get this?" she asked with wonder.

"It's mine! Give it back!" While ignoring the question, Spike again voiced his demand.

"No, I think I'll hold on to it for a while." Durant answered, looking at the storm darkening the child's face.

"No. You give it back to me! It's mine." Spike hissed at Durant.

"Now, hold on." Durant pulled her head back with surprise and then she warned. "You mind your tone."

Spike realized where this was going. He knew he was not going to get the stone through his verbal powers of persuasion at this time. His only options were to throw a fit or wait and bide his time and hopefully an opportunity would arise. He considered throwing a fit, but that would need some waterworks. He wasn't sure if he could come up with them on demand. He tried to think very sad event that could inspire tears from the past: his relationship with Buffy, his guilt with the soul, the harrowing episode with his mother…no, nope nothing…not a tear was forthcoming. 'I've really become quite jaded recently' he said to himself in a moment of self discovery. He was going to have to settle for a good old sulk.

"No! Give it back!" Spike declared. Pointing up at Durant. "You're mean. You're not my friend." He turned and sat down on the floor of the elevator with a snort of disgust. Spike was successful in portraying an award winning display of a pouting child as he angrily crossed his arms, and pointedly looked away from Durant.

Durant looked up to the ceiling and rolled her eyes. She might have excelled in her military training, but that in no way prepared her to deal with a recalcitrant child. It was just at that moment that the elevator arrived at the lobby of the Wolfram and Hart.

…...

Everyone in Angel's office heard the commotion in the lobby coming toward the doors. Angel could hear the conversation, it seemed Spike was putting up resistance and an woman's voice telling him to come along. The doors opened and the woman first appeared in the doorway with her back against the door holding it open. Her left arm had a hold of Spike's wrist. It seems that she had dragged a resisting Spike across the lobby. She pulled him through the doorway. As soon as Spike spied Angel, he ran directly over to him away from the woman. He cast a hard look over his shoulder at her as he arrived in front of Angel. The woman just looked away in exasperation at the child's reaction.

"Angel, I bumped my head." Spike said pitifully as he looked up at the large vampire with a sorrowful expression.

He bent over his head to show Angel the bump, using one finger to point out the spot. At the same time his head was bent, Spike looked back to see Durant walk over to Elkhorn and give him the stone. Spike knew he had to keep an eye on where that stone was. Durant took a few steps back and stood at the end of the desk, watching the captives in the room. At the same time, Spike took note that besides Elkhorn and Durant, there were only two guards remaining in the room holding the team captive.

Angel bent over and placed his hands on the curls of the small head in front of him. He parted the curls and saw the small bump on the back of Spike's head.

"Oh, I bet that hurt." Angel said sympathetically.

"Uh huh." Spike looked up and nodded. Spike blinked a couple of times; he was surprised at how kindly Angel seemed to be looking at him. He was further flabbergasted when Angel placed his large hand to his back. Angel pulled the child against his legs for a quick hug and few consoling pats on the back.

"Alright, Elkhorn. You got what you came for. Why don't you take your people and go?" Angel addressed the man, who was happily examining the stone in his hand.

"What? And end our conclave so soon?" Elkhorn chuckled and set the stone on the desk beside him. He got up from where he was leaning against the desk and stood up. "You know, I was thinking…Just because I have the stone in my possession now, doesn't mean you'll let me keep it. Now that I see all the facilities at your disposal, I realize there's no way that I can just walk out of here without you pursuing me. I think it would be better if we just tidied everything up right here." With that statement, Elkhorn pulled out the solar energy device.

"I've always wanted to see what this thing could do at full power." Elkhorn said with a smile as he slid the button across the panel.

Seeing Elkhorn so enthralled with his little device, Spike made a dash over to the desk. Grabbing the stone, he ducked under the desk to the far side, clutching it to his chest. Elkhorn spun around, seeing the child taking the stone from the desk.

"You little…" Elkhorn said threateningly.

In the next instant before any of the humans could move, Angel moved like a flash over to Elkhorn and grabbed him by the collar. He thrust Elkhorn's face down onto the desk, which made a crunching sound as it contacted the desk and then pulling him back up. The blood from Elkhorn's nose was pouring down over the bottom half of his face.

"What were you going to say?" Angel whispered menacingly in Elkhorn's ear.

"You're not paying attention. Are you?" Elkhorn said, as Angel heard a click of a weapon being aimed at his head. Durant was standing there, pointing her anti-vampire gun at Angel's head.

Angel let go of Elkhorn and backed away, with his hands up. He looked over to Spike, who was still standing there with the stone in his hands in front of him.

"Spike. Come here." Angel called to the child. He waved his hand in a beckoning motion.

Spike shook his head and scowling, took a few steps back to the wall. There was no way that he was going to let go of the stone a second time. It was the only way he was going to become an adult again. As much fun as messing with the team had been, it was already getting old. He was not about to resign himself to an endless future of cookies and naptime. He would rather dust.

"I see that you allow the child to misbehave. I would have never have thought you were one of those kind of people, who allow children to run ragged over them." Elkhorn said smugly as he regarded Angel as he took a few steps toward the vampire. "I personally hate brats. This is going to be poetic." Elkhorn turned back toward the desk and back to the child, wiping his hand across his face. He looked at the blood covering his hand with a smile.

"No!"

"Wait, you don't mean!"

"You bastard!"

"Stop! You can't!"

The AI team called out as they leaped forward, but were halted by the soldiers leveling their guns at them. The team stopped, watching the scene in front of them holding their breath. Hitting the button to power up the device to full power, Elkhorn walked back to the desk to regard Spike, who had not moved from his place against the wall. Sneering, Spike was watching the man with an intensity not prone to small children. Elkhorn called over his shoulder.

"You didn't think I realized the child was a vampire? You must really doubt my powers of observation." Elkhorn smiled sadistically at the little boy on the other side of the desk. "Come on, boy! Let's show em what this thing can really do."

Elkhorn pointed the fully powered solar device at Spike, his finger on the firing button. The next moment, Elkhorn's feet were kicked out from under him as he felt a blow at the back of his head. Durant had gone into attack once she realized the child was about to be killed. Vampire or not, she liked the little boy and she wasn't about to let anything happen to him.

Elkhorn toppled over the top of the desk, his finger hitting the device. It fired, but at no one in particular. Elkhorn tumbled toward where Spike was standing. Elkhorn reached out a bloody hand and grasped the stone in Spike's hands. There was a huge explosion of light as the blood from Elkhorn came in contact with the stone. The light became so blinding, that no one could look directly at it. There seemed to be a big build up of energy during this event, that suddenly surged across the room like a tsunami. Durant was flung about ten feet away while everyone else was knocked off their feet. Finally, the light seemed to subside and the atmosphere in the room came back to normal. The scattered humans were still laying dazed on the floor, but were slowly coming back to consciousness. Angel was the first to sit up.

'Spike!' was the first thought that entered Angel's mind. He began to move toward the desk, but stopped just short of it. There was a sound coming from behind the desk.

It was the cry of a newborn infant.


	13. Chapter 13

**Turning the Helical Gear**

Author: Nickeltaffy

Disclaimer: These characters are Joss's. I don't own them, never did and never will. Thanks for the loan.

Everyone's surprised by Spike's latest transformation – a four year old Spike. The only one who seems to taking it well is Spike and he's up for a little fun and maybe, some payback.

…

Chapter 13

Everyone was gathered in the medical section of Wolfram and Hart for the second time that day. Fred was reading the report on the examination of the infant discovered in Angel's office. The men uncomfortably shifted on their feet and looked at each other with unease as they listened to it.

"It appears he is a normal ten day old human infant. He is a completely healthy seven pound five ounce infant. The fontanelle and all growth plates are normal and present for an infant of this age." Fred went on to say. "His reactions are consistent with expected metal development of a newborn infant. Based upon examination of the cellular level, he should grow at a normal rate to adulthood." Fred looked up from the report at the rest of the group standing there and shrugged with a pained smile.

Angel, Wesley and Gunn stood there, not looking at Fred as she let her hand with the report fall to her side. There were a few moments of quiet as they digested the information that had just been presented to them. Angel seemed to stare off at a spot on the floor a few feet away with his hands in his pockets. Gunn's eyes swam back and forth over the room and then looked back over at the infant that lay swaddled in the clear plastic bassinet. Wesley looked up toward the ceiling, tensing his mouth to one side as thoughts ran through his head.

"So, what happened to the stone?" Wes asked as he pulled his eyes from the ceiling and looked over at Fred.

"It has completely disappeared. It seems that the solar device in Elkhorn's hand had just enough power to ignite the time/energy spiral one more time. Once he placed his bloody hand on the stone, it completed the circuit between the solar device and the stone, and initiated another spiral. The stone was consumed in this final cycle." Fred said as she looked over at the small body.

Silence was once again prevalent, as the group processed the situation. This time, Gunn was the first to break the silence that seemed to weigh down the atmosphere surrounding the group.

"So, what do we do with him?" he asked the group, indicating the baby with his head.

"We find him a home. A good home, where they can bring him up to be a good man." Angel announced intently without looking away from the spot on the floor.

"I don't know if we should do that. We just can't unleash him on an unsuspecting family. We know what kind of character he is." Wesley disputed with an eerily calm voice.

"Look at him. I don't think he poses much of a threat now, do you? How much evil could a small body like that hold, really?" Fred said as she put her hand on Wesley's arm and turned him, so he could see the tender infant lying in the bed. Wes eyes traveled to the baby, and then over to Fred, ashamed of the words that had recently come out of his mouth.

"Well..." Wesley began but was quickly interrupted by a cacophony of noise which was occurring a number of feet away.

In the next instant, a clatter of metal arose from the next curtained medical bay. The curtains at the bay were suddenly torn open by a technician in a white lab coat who came running out while ducking metal pans being thrown at him. The man in the lab coat turned around in terror, looking back at the bay from across the aisle. The examination tray came hurdling out of the bay toward him. He jumped away from it with a squeal and then made a mad dash down the aisle way as quickly as he could.

"I think someone is awake." Angel said as he slowly turned to regard the cloaked medical bay.

"Where are my bloody clothes?!" The curtains were torn open by a fully grown adult Spike who stood there with an incensed look. He was only dressed in a hospital gown which only came down to his mid calf. He looked from side to side at the entrance of the medical bay, spying the AI team, he moved toward the group.

"You! What the bleedin hell is going on?" Spike pointed at Angel as he came towards the group. "What am I doing here? Why was there a one of those degenerates in a white coat trying to poke me with something when I woke up?"

"Spike, calm down. We'll answer your questions in good time, but first we have to resolve this situation." Angel looked over at the others. "Back to our special guest over there. We need to decide what to do with him. Does anyone have any suggestions?"

"I know a couple back in Texas that is looking to adopt. He's a youth minister and she's a child psychologist." Fred interjected. "I don't think there could be a better couple to raise him to be a good upstanding man."

Seeing that everyone was looking toward the window, Spike wandered over to the glass and looked at the infant Elkhorn lying in the clear bassinet. He leaned against the glass as he turned back to the group.

"Blimey! You would do that to the poor mite? I mean, the next eighteen years for him are going to be a soddin examination of what you should do and why you didn't do it. He's going to be a very confounded good boy by the time they're done with him." Spike said with a look of distaste at the team. Shaking his head, he turned back to the window. "You have my bleedin sympathies, mate!"

"I think that there's nothing left to be said on that matter." Angel said as he walked toward the window. He turned toward his team once more. "Fred, Gunn, please inform the Legal department to process the adoption as soon as possible."

"You betcha. I'll give the couple a call right away. Brother Jonas and Arnette will so be thrilled, I am sure they'll take the next plane out." Fred replied happily.

Fred and Gunn moved together toward the doors. Fred was almost skipping with happiness as she envisioned the reaction of the couple when she would call them. Angel, Wes and Spike stood there watching the two leave. Spike groaned.

"Bleedin hell. I don't know about the two of you, but I am very aware of a cross breeze in this section." Spike sighed. "You two don't know what they did with my clothes, do you? I guess I just have to suss the location of my clothes myself. Hey you, in the white coat..I wanna talk to you!" Spike called after a technician who looked appropriately intimidated by the vampire striding purposefully toward him.

"What are you going to tell him?" Wes asked as he looked over at Angel.

"I don't know yet." Angel said, never taking his eyes away from the retreating blonde vampire.

…

Once Spike had located his clothes and was well safely ensconced in them again, he began to think about the events of the day. He sat down and tried to review the events of the day, but couldn't really recall much. He remembered going into the staff meeting this morning, having an argument with Angel…nothing out of the ordinary there. But after that point, his memory seemed to be spotty and playing tricks on him. It was like things had gotten spun together, as if someone had come along with a big stick and stirred his memories up. He couldn't really pick a clear memory out after the meeting. Oh well, looking down at himself, he seemed to be in one piece. He was sure that someone would tell him at some point, if anything interesting had happened. Shrugging, he stood up, took a deep breath and pulled on his duster..

He decided that he needed a drink, so we went over to Lorne's establishment for a beer. He seemed to be receiving special attention from the demon. Lorne mentioned that his aura seemed a bit brighter, you might say, shinier than normal. Spike just shrugged it off as the demon was just being peculiar. After a few of more beers, and discovering they seemed to be affecting him more than normal, Spike decided to call it a night and returned to his apartment for a good night's sleep. He was surprised when he found someone waiting for him at his door.

"Well, color me surprised!" Spike stood still at the top of the stairs, surprised. "What brings you to be lurking outside my humble abode, Peaches?"

"I just wanted to check up on you. See if you were alright." Angel moved out of the shadows.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Spike was looking at the tall vampire as he came toward his door. He caught his toe and tripped slightly.

"You've been drinking?" Angel asked.

"I must say, that's excellent detective work on your part." Spike brought up his chin as he said it and sniffed. "Well, as you can see..all's well. So, piss off."

"You seem rather drunk. How many have you had?" Angel's eyes traveled over Spike who seemed to be losing more and more sobriety by the second.

"That's the funny thing, only a few. I seemed to have lost my tolerance this evening." Spike studied the lock as he tried to unsuccessfully jam his key into it. " I can't think why. Maybe, they gave me something when I was in the medical section today"

After watching the younger vampire try to unlock his door several times, Angel took the key from Spike's hand and opened the door for the blond vampire who bonelessly slid in through the doorway.

"Come on in. All are welcome." Spike said, throwing his arm in a drunken roundabout welcome. Angel followed the increasingly inebriated vampire into the apartment. Spike slammed down on his threadbare sofa like a ragdoll, his legs splayed out straight in front of him.

"You should go to bed." Angel stated.

"Excellent idea." Spike said with his head hanging down as he wavered on the sofa. His eyes were almost closed when Spike took a deep breath and shook himself awake. When he did, he noticed that Angel had moved over in front of him and was kneeling in front of him, unlacing his boots. It was eerily familiar. There was a slight flash of memory of Angel removing his shoes once before, but his feet were a lot smaller. HE was a lot smaller. That didn't make any sense. 'I don't know what they slipped me, but it is playing tricks on me.' Spike thought as he rubbed his face, blinking his eyes, and opening them wide. He looked at Angel again, he had to tell him something.

"Hey, You..," Spike drunkenly pointed at Angel several times as he tried to put words together. "You were bigger..." Spike abruptly fell forward. He had passed out and had fallen over asleep. His face crashing against Angel's shoulder.

….

As Spike walked into the lobby of Wolfram and Hart that morning, he could still not really recall anything specific that had happened the previous day. He stopped by Harmony's desk to check his mail as that was his habit before the morning meeting. There was an interoffice envelope sitting there for him. It was a 'Save the date' invitation for a house warming part for the demons, Langdon and Noreen down in the high security containment section. 'That's funny,' Spike thought. 'I didn't know they were seeing each other.' Langdon had always seemed so content in his carefully constructed bachelor pad down there. Spike had thought Langdon would never leave his single guy sanctuary voluntarily. Hmm. Things change, apparently, Spike mused.

Spike was standing there, continuing to look at the mail when he noticed a man and a woman dressed in the Wolfram and Hart military garb. They both seemed to be smiling broadly at him, looking at him with some sort of expectation. He gave them a little tilt of his head with puzzled eyes and resumed looking through the mail. He felt the woman come up and place her hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at the woman standing there. Her eyes traveled from the top of his head on down, like she was taking inventory.

"Good morning, Spike." Durant said, with a gentle bemused tone.

"Um..Good morning." Spike said, a little abashed.

"How are you, today?" Durant asked, smiling at him as if she knew something he didn't.

"I'm fine. Thank you. How are you?" Spike stood there, scrabbling in his mind to figure out who this person was who seemed to know him. Just for a moment a memory flashed, but that woman seemed to be a lot taller, a lot, lot taller than the one standing in front of him.

"Just fine. It's good to see you." With that statement, Durant gave him a slight pat on his cheek. She stood back, smiling. She looked into his eyes, and gave a satisfied sigh and walked off. She and Pulaski went toward the elevators to report to their new duty stations, now that they were employed by Wolfram and Hart under Angel's direction. The remaining mercenaries from Elkhorn's team had also been hired, but had been farmed out to less glamorous and definitely more dangerous locations by the firm.

Spike spun around to Harmony.

"Do I know them?" Spike urgently asked her pointing back at the couple at the elevators. Harmony had left early yesterday, so she had missed most of the events of the previous day. She just shrugged as she leaned over to watch the two military personnel enter the elevator.

Fred was walking and happily talking with a young earnest looking couple who had a small infant wrapped in one of those homemade crocheted receiving blankets. The young slightly dowdy mother was carrying the child close, while speaking with Fred, but never taking her eyes off the tiny child. The young father was carrying a diaper bag and was toting one of those baby carrier/car seats in his hand. He was also leaning over and looking at the baby with such emotion, that his face was red and his eyes were misty. Every once in a while, he would reach over to bounce a small balled up fist off his finger.

Spike's eyes followed the small group as they crossed the lobby. He heard Fred say the young couple boarded the elevator.

"Just let me know what's going on with little Ambrose Hiram. I think it is wonderful that he is being named after both his grandfathers. I am so happy for all of you." Fred said, as she waved goodbye as the elevator doors closed.

Spike winced as he heard the name. Closing his eyes, he knew the schoolyard was going to be an adventure in torment for that kid. Suddenly, he felt Fred's hand wrap around his arm and give it a squeeze.

"So, how are you doin this morning, Sweetie?" She grinned at him with a special amount of glee aimed just at him.

Returning the grin with a chuckle, Spike answered "Just fine, darling."

"Take me into the meeting?" Fred inclined her head toward the conference room, not letting go of his arm.

"My pleasure." Spike said as he put his other hand over hers.

Spike guided the young woman into the conference room. As the pair entered the room, everyone's attention was turned toward Spike as he entered the room. Spike became very aware that he had become the center of attention for some reason.

"How are you today, Spike?" Wes said, his eyes were casually measuring the vampire as Spike came in the room.

"Hey, Spike." Gunn said as he took his seat and leaned back to regard the blonde vampire.

"Spike." Angel said, as he walked back to his seat, watching the blonde vampire out the corner of his eye.

As Spike held out the chair for Fred, who sat down in the chair and turned it to regard him. Spike gave an uncomfortable grin as he turned and sat down in his own chair. He noticed that he was the center of attention. He waited, but when no one said anything, he had to ask.

"I am noticing that everyone is watching me as if I am about to explode…..….Why?" His eyes moving from face to face, a puzzled Spike asked the room.

"Someone else can answer that." Angel said, low under his breath.

…

_Fin_

_Author's note: Well, I have just finished my first story. I hoped you liked it. I look forward to any reviews or input you would like to provide me. _

_If you would like to continue to find out what the stone still has in store for a kid size Spike , please see the sequel: The Downside of Elemental Dieseling_


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